News
Page 2
'ITie Hluc Banner — Serving the Universin of North Carolina at Ashe\ille sinee 1982
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Citizens successful in overturning plans for Woodfin plant
By Ashley Horne
COPV EOCTOR
Community efforts against
Progress Energy’s proposed oil-
burning power plant for Woodfin
convinced the Woodfin zoning
board to unanimously deny
Progress Energy’s conditional-use
permit application at a public hear
ing on April 2.
“The decision is
economically and
To build the power plant in
Woodfin, Progress Energy applied
for a conditional-use piermit to the
seven-member zoning board. The
board made their decision after
being presented with facts and tes
timonies from local doctors and
economists about the impact the
power plant would have on the
environment and
^ ^ the economy.
This is just
lllia 15 JU51
environmentally 1 he decision is economically another case of
beneficial to this and environmental beneficial people discover-
' y to this community.
will
c o m m u n
because we
be able to avoid
major costs that
will increa.se as a
result from respi
ratory illness
increases,’’ said Dee Eggers, UNC
Asheville associate professor of
environmental studies. “It’s eco
nomically a tremendous win for
the community, and environmen
tally, it’s a respon.sible decision
that benefits the community.”
In early December, Progress
Energy released plans to build an
oil-burning power
plant in Woodfin
on a former
Dee t/xiERS
Ass(x;iatc Professor,
Environmental Studies
mg that what’s
good for the
environment is
also good for the
economy,”
Eggers said.
The board had
to vote if Progress Energy’s use for
the land passed their seven-condi
tion test and was beneficial to
Woodfin. The bocU'd unanimously
voted no, saying the power plant
had a negative impact on the
heath, safety and welfare of the
people of Woodfin, failing the first
condition.
The Western
North Carolina
Alliance and
Buncombe County came to the table for dif- Canary
landfill site, which fgf-gnt reasons but at the end of Coalition, two
rnany same cause. environ-
' mental organi-
JoiiN Metcxi.f
Director of Bu.siness
ii'.
Say
‘oEiiersy-Efircienc,
^ Clean RenewabI
“ower.
e
jj j Jj 33JJJ fj DT; J’jj
The Clean Enemy TasK Totce o Moui>VaV«Molce» Buncomb* Bounty
iC
vto
t
per
Staff Photoo^
angered
Woodfin area resi
dents.
Environmentalists,
local developers
and community
activists organized
opposition to the
power plant and presented statis
tics and expert testimony at the
public hearing. With both sides
represented, the zoning board
voted 7-0 against Progress Energy
keeping the power plant’s con
struction in Woodfin, according to
Jason Young, Woodfin town man
ager.
Development, Reynolds
M
fountain
zations, pre
sented facts on
the harmful
effects of the
oil-burning
plant’s emis-
Clint Lathinghouse
Woodfin resident Linda Larsen and her grandson stand beside the banner Larsen and her husband Ron displayed on their property to inform
locals about the harms of the proposed oil-burning powerplant. After months of protesting and meetings, citizens managed to overturn the
town’s original decision to allow Progress Energy to build a powerplant. Earlier in Eebruary, police arrested two environmental activists for
climbing a billboard, posting a banner in the earliest attempts at protesting the plans and standing up there in the 30-degree weather.
by displaying banners and signs Mountain.
sions to the community’s respira
tory health and current air quality.
Since December, groups like the
WNC Alliance and the Canary
Coalition organized and informed
Woodfin area residents on the
many concerns of the proposed
plant through local information
meetings, going door-to-door and
along Weaverville Highway,
according to Linda Larsen,
Woodfin resident and a WNC
Alliance community organizer.
Alongside the environmental
testimonies, economists and devel
opers alleged the power plant
would diminish area property val
ues and diminish the development
of the town, thus failing another of
the board’s conditions, according
to John Metcalf, director of busi
ness development for Reynolds
“We know specifically that we
lost more than $1 million in sales
and that specifically a reservation
for a town home was canceled as a
direct result of the power plant,”
Metcalf said. “This was a doctor
who was educated on the issues
and it was certainly for health rea
sons that he decided not to hold his
reservation.”
Progress Energy previously
leased the old county landfill site
from the Buncombe County Board
of Commissioners to build the
power plant on. Metcalf said this
land could be developed into better
uses for the Woodfin community,
like green spaces and parks.
“We are currently involved with
the Town of Woodfin and the
remediation of a 156 acre former
Asheville City landfill site. We
feel the site they wanted to put the
power plant on has great potential
for other uses,” Metcalf said. “One
of the advantages of doing devel
opment on this purpose property.
like the landfill sites, is that at ik
end of the day, while you can
a sound, residential conunuM
you are also obligated to keep
great amount of space open.”
While the arguments against tk
plant were separated as enviioj
mental and economic, the t«
depended upon one another it
defeat the power plant, accordiij
Larsen.
“We came to the table for diet-
SEE Woodfin page ii
I
tn
sera
«ill
Mo(
cou
Af
SM
VP
Weil
and
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m
Woi
W c
S't
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with
t"
Cold Case
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Laughon
was not making money,
said.
Shipman and Glass ran a small
drug dealing business out of the
back of their music shop in
Hendersonville, but neither was
involved with hard drugs, nor did
Shumate participate in the opera
tion, according to Miller.
“We knew she had a prescription
pain pill problem, so we initially
thought mayhe drugs were
involved,” Laughon said. “But
apparently, she hated illegal drugs
to the point where she phoned
police about drug dealing in her
neighborhood, so we ruled out that
this was a drug transaction gone
bad.”
The class investigates assump
tions about the suspects made by
multiple eyewitnesses who saw the
victims riding in a car with
unknown driver, according
Laughon.
“The stereotyping really shapes
this case,” Laughon said. ‘They
made assumptions about people
just because they were black. A
an
to
black guy in Hendersonville would
have stuck out like a sore thumb.”
The culture of the late-’60s is
what Laughon considers fascinat
ing, she said.
“It’s 1966, and two gay guys in
their forties and this 60-year-old
straight woman are murdered,”
Laughon said. “She’s heen a mys
tery.”
Shumate was a very private per
son, somewhat of a recluse. It is
possible that she may have spent
time in a mental institution for
depression and paranoia.
Authorities ruled out mob connec
tions as a cause of the homicide or
Shumate’s paranoia, according to
Miller.
The students work with Jennie
Jones Giles, a reporter from the
Hendersonville Times-News and
UNC Asheville alumna, according
to Laughon.
Giles started working on the case
January last year, and the Times-
News published it in July. Giles
said the tremendous amount
research required quickly con
of
sumed her days.
“I’m just one individual, and
this case is so old and so cold,
and I’m thrilled these students
are helping me with that
research,” Giles said. “They’re
helping us out a lot.”
The students in the class do a
great deal of research, according to
Laughon.
While they studied a death
penalty case that Laughon does a
lot of work on at the beginning of
the semester, they devoted the rest
of the semester to this cold case,
she said.
“We’ve made a list of documents
to obtain and people to speak to,”
Miller said.
Laughon said her students do a
lot of the legwork and much of the
research for this particularly
unusual class. Laughon said she
believes the case will continue to
drag along for quite some time.
“With this case, you just kind of
have to. I’m afraid, keep looking
into it,” she said. “It’s tedious. It’s
not always as fun as it looks.”
UNC Asheville Office of Cultural & Special Events presents
LOS ANGELES
GUITAR
QUARTET
P
Commission
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
WITH
said. “They can’t just use it for
their own organization, and it must
be here on campus.”
Students start these clubs for a
variety of reasons, and anyone is
free to start a new one if they do
not find something to suit their
tastes, according to Little.
“Basically, there are no unac
ceptable organizations. If it is
unlawfully discriminating against
anyone on campus obviously we
can’t have it, but if it is like an
intramural sport or something stu
dents will be interested in, more
than likely it will be able to be an
organization on campus,” she said.
Chakales said starting an organi
zation is simple and can involve
just a few students.
“They just need to get two or
LUCIANA SdtrZA
three students involved, a full-time
staff or full-time faculty member
as their adviser, provide a constitu
tion or statement of purpose and
then they are approved by the
Student Government Association,”
she said.
Clubs and organizations appeal
to students because it is a chance
to do something for fellow stu
dents, according to Chakales.
“It is the excitement of organ
izing something for a peer. The
students know what other stu
dents want to see and hear, and
there are some exciting pro
grams that people want to pro
mote,” she said.
Groups give students more
power and say in the school,
according to Kee Hwan Jang, pres
ident of the group Asian Students
in Asheville.
“Everybody has different inter
ests, and as a group, we can do
things we can’t do alone,” he said.
Little said organizations are
important because they get stu
dents more involved in the cam-
Fri, April 13, 2007 • 8 pm
UNC Asheville Lipinsky Auditorium
pus.
“This campus is usually known
as a ‘suitcase campus.’ Everybody
leaves every weekend. What we
are trying to do is get students to
stay on campus. The only way we
can do that is by having student
organizations, promote their
organizations and get interest out
there, especially on weekends,”
she said. “It is really about stu
dents promoting academic and
campus life.”
$6 • UNC Asheville and all area students with ID
$15 • UNC Asheville faculty/staff/NCCCR/alumni
$24 • General public
Tickets: 828.232.5000 • Highsmith Union Box Office
Information. 828.251.6227 • www.unca.edu/culturalarts
Correction. In Issue 8 of The Blue Banner, an article on the controversy surrounding Depauw’s Delta Zeta
Mrority, Sororities under fire for evictions allegedly based on appearance,” attributed the Delta chapter of
Delta Zeta at Depauw as the oldest active chapter.
In fact, it is the fourth chapter founded and the second oldest active chapter. The oldest chapter of Delta Zeta
IS at Miami U in Ohio.
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