ANDREWS
Poker Run fights cancer
Grandpa Charlie's Country Cookin’ restaurant on Main Street has partnered with Blazing Skeleton Riding Club of Sylva to raise awareness and advocate for children with cancer with a special event Saturday. All proceeds will be going to childhood cancer research through Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.
Grandpa Charlie's owner Angela Callahan said the event is being held in honor of Dakota Stilke, forever 9, and Danner Cochran, forever 11, as well as her son, a two-time cancer fighter. She paired with the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association to give Danner a successful ride in May 2020.
“This is very near and dear to my heart,” Callahan said. “As long as I am able to, I would like to do something of this nature every year.”
The ride will begin at 9 a.m. at Rick’s Cycle, 4762 U.S. 74 in Whittier, for registration. The last bike will be out by 11 a.m. There will be five stops before ending around 2 p.m. at Grandpa Charlie's, where the restaurant will be selling food at only $5 a plate. There will be a raffle and other goodies as well.
The entry fee for the second annual Cancer Sucks Poker Run is $20 per person or $30 for couples. That includes one poker hand, though you can buy more. For details, call Tina at 828-400-4515.
HANGING DOG
Big Sweep on Saturday
The annual Cherokee County Big Sweep trash pickup on and around Hiwassee Lake will be held from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, starting from the pavilion and boat launch at Hanging Dog Campground off Joe Brown Highway.
Local volunteers have been cleaning the lake on the last weekend in September since 1997. With COVID-19 in the community and social distancing recommendations this year, if some people don’t want to meet as a group they are encouraged to pick up equipment Thursday or Friday at the Mainspring Conservation Trust office, 46 Valley River Ave. in downtown Murphy, then pick a “litter zone” to clean themselves.
Litter needs to be dropped off at the Hanging Dog boat ramp before Sunday morning. For a list of litter zones and details, visit www.mainspringconserves.org.
BLUE RIDGE, Ga.
‘Old Times’ become new
The Blue Ridge Community Theater will be presenting a production of Harold Pinter's Old Times from Friday through Sunday at the theater, 2591 E. First St.
The play is being produced as a part of the newly developed Black Box Studio program at the theater, which is designed to expand the range of offerings as well as provide a medium through which the work of new acting, directing and playwriting talent can be developed in northern Georgia and western North Carolina.
Old Times, one of Pinter's masterpiece memory plays, is rarely seen in the United States. Production of the play by amateur organizations is strictly regulated by his estate, which is controlled by his widow, Dame Antonia Fraser. Blue Ridge was able to acquire the performance rights due to the trusted relationship between Antonia Fraser and Hope Burns.
The director, Mike Berkman, has spent months working with three of the area’s talented actors –Michael Lacy, Patty Carreau and Kathy Ryan-Fores – to develop the production. Tickets are $10 at the door or $11 online. The Black Box venue has only 50 seats per performance, all COVID-19 precautions are in effect and masks are mandatory.
WAYNESVILLE
White runs for Congress
During an anti-Madison Cawthorn rally for relief, climate and economic action Sunday, community organizer Chelsea White announced her bid for the Democratic seat for N.C. Congressional District 11.
Speaking about recent flood recovery efforts in Cruso following Tropical Storm Fred, White shared her announcement to a crowd of 100 people, who gathered to demand Congress pass a historic investment in working families not seen since the 1930s that could lift people out of poverty. She described a campaign dedicated to accessible and quality health care for all, good-paying union jobs and sustainable infrastructure for Appalachia.
“Our people in these mountains know what it takes to work hard and love one another. I want to raise up the village who raised me and lift up the resilience of mountain working people,” White said in a release. “Politicians like Cawthorn try to divide us for personal gain, backed by corporations and the wealthy few, pitting us against one another for profit. I know that our people-powered movement has the energy, force, and organizing grit that it will take to unseat Cawthorn and join the growing momentum building across the South.”
For the last decade, White has devoted her life’s work to organizing in rural communities from Murphy to Marshall around issues like health care and jobs that impact poor and working people in their everyday lives. She is the western regional organizer and communications coordinator for Transform NC, a labor and climate statewide coalition.
SYLVA
DOT hosting event for biz
The N.C. Department of Transportation’s Division of Highways, in partnership with its Office of Civil Rights, is inviting small, disadvantaged businesses to learn more about contracting opportunities with the department.
From 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, DOT staff will host a virtual event for Highway Division 14, which includes Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Polk, Swain and Transylvania counties. More than 200 people representing more than 150 firms have participated in past events.
The DOT awards contracts in mowing, litter pickup, landscaping, snow and ice removal, traffic control, painting, striping, road construction and other areas. For details, visit www.ncdot.gov/highwaysdbe.
YOUNG HARRIS, Ga.
Blue Ridge EMC meets
The annual meeting of the Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corp. is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Towns County Recreation & Conference Center off U.S. 76.
The terms three members of the board of directors expire with the meeting. The nominating committee has recommended the following members – all incumbents – to serve another three-year term:
- Fannin County – Gayland Trull, who retired from Southwest Airlines in 2014 and today operates Western Carolina Regional Airport in Andrews.
- Towns County – Roy Perren, principal of Towns County High School.
- Union County – Jack Lance Jr., a lifelong local resident and licensed real estate attorney.
Registration will begin at 4 p.m. The High Country Harmonizers will provide entertainment, and there will be prizes, food and drinks available at the meeting.
MARBLE
Lunsford to get honored
The N.C. Department of Transportation is inviting the public out at 11 a.m. Friday for a ceremony naming a bridge in honor of the Rev. Fred B. Lunsford.
The event will take place at Marble Springs Baptist Church, 80 Marble Springs Church Road. Lunsford is a U.S. Army veteran who has dedicated a lifetime to serving families and children in his community.
For details or to RSVP, contact Sazia Bashar at sbashar@ncdot.gov or 919-707-2681.
ANDREWS
Hot Summer Nights nears
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7620 and the U.S. Marine Corps League, Cherokee Detachment 1011, will present Hot Summer Nights, a cruise-in automobile show, from 3-7 p.m. Saturday at Hall Memorial Park downtown.
Bikes, cars and trucks will be on display; they are free to show, and the event is free to attend. There will be hot dogs, popcorn and more. For details, see the group’s Facebook pages.
WASHINGTON
No postal hike – yet
The U.S. Postal Service announced Sept. 15 that it will not implement a postage increase in January. The next increase will be in July 2022, then it will begin a new regime of twice-yearly increases beginning in 2023.
The new pricing plans depend upon the approval by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit of the rate-increase authority created by the Postal Regulatory Commission, according to the National Newspaper Association. The NNA and other mailer organizations have sued the PRC, saying its new postage pricing regulations are not permitted under federal law, and a decision is expected by the end of the year.
The July increase will take into effect the cost of inflation for 10 months, the expense of covering unpaid retiree health costs mandated by Congress, additional charges to account for the effects of falling mail volume and adjustments for mail classes like periodicals that are reportedly not covering the cost of handling, transportation and delivery. Unless Congress changes the law, the increase is likely to be higher than the oner that just went into effect in August.
“We continue our efforts to persuade Congress that its own inaction is at the root of this problem," NNA Chair Brett Wesner said.
MURPHY
Ag Pro sets celebration
Ag Pro will celebrate it’s one-year anniversary in Murphy from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, at 88 Butler Mountain Road off U.S. 64 West.
You’re invited to enjoy all the free festivities, including antique tractors, food trucks, vendors and giveaways. For details, call 361-7359 or visit www.agprocompanies.com.
CORRECTION
There was a reporting error in the article “8 deaths among 135 new COVID cases” on page 3A in the Sept. 8 edition of the Cherokee Scout. An associate with Wayne’s Feed Store in Murphy confirmed that the store had been selling more of the livestock dewormer medication Ivermectin than usual, adding that the store did not advocate using the drug beyond the instructions listed on the package. However, the latter half of that paragraph was inadvertently combined with a comment by Cherokee County Health Director David Badger, who said there was no real science nor research behind some people’s decision to take Ivermectin. The Scout regrets the error.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Public meetings
THIS WEEK
- Cherokee County Department of Social Services Board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the DSS conference room, 4800 U.S. 64 W. in Ranger.
COMING SOON
- Murphy Town Council will meet at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4, at Murphy Electric Power Board, 5 Wofford St. downtown.
- Cherokee County Board of Commissioners will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4, in the multi-purpose room of the Cherokee County Courthouse, 75 Peachtree St. in downtown Murphy.
- The Learning Center Board of Directors will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 945 Connahetta St. in Murphy.
- Cherokee County Tourism Development Authority will meet at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 11, in the Murphy Visitors Center, 20 Tennessee St.
- Andrews Board of Aldermen will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, in the Facilities Building, 85 Fourth St.
- Cherokee County Veteran Forces will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, at the Cherokee County Courthouse, 75 Peachtree St. in downtown Murphy.
- Cherokee County Board of Education will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, at Central Office, 911 Andrews Road in Murphy.
- Andrews ABC Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 18, in the Facilities Building, 85 Fourth St.
From staff reports.