Home Care In Fairview, NC

Karrigan Monk

After more than a decade selling seafood at various tailgate markets in the area, Roger Queen decided to open his own storefront with his wife Debra three years ago in Fairview. Now, they have expanded to Black Mountain.

The business, known as Fairview Seafood Company, opened in Black Mountain in December.

“December is kind of a hard time to open a business like this,” Debra Queen said. “But it’s growing really well. We’re really excited about it. We’re happy to be here.”

While tailgate markets are seasonal and usually run from spring to fall, the Queens' stores are open year-round.

Roger Queen said they picked Black Mountain because of his connections from working the Black Mountain tailgate market for seven years.

“It’s a good, strong market and good people, and I really like working with them,” Roger Queen said. “That’s the main reason we wanted to stay here, because of the people we met. The town has a good feel to it. Everybody’s friendly.”

He said he is retiring from the tailgate business to focus on running their stores. Debra Queen said while they were happy to open their own store, leaving the tailgate market was “bittersweet.”

“Leaving the Black Mountain market was a little bittersweet for Roger,” Debra Queen said. “He’d been there for so long and he has lots of friends that came and rely on him to be there. We’re on a first-name basis with a lot of people.”

Roger Queen said many of the customers from the tailgate market have come to the new store, along with plenty of newcomers as well. He said he sees as many as 10 to 15 new customers each week.

Debra Queen said she posts on various Facebook groups in both Fairview and Black Mountain, including the Black Mountain Exchange group. She said she is able to answer questions anyone may have about their products there, and it brings in new customers.

The Queens both said they like talking to their customers and learning about them each week, and helping them discover new seafood.

Roger Queen said they pick up their fresh seafood from Hendersonville each Thursday night. The seafood is shipped from Wilmington and is all from the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing is frozen.

Once the Queens have their seafood for the week, they sell at both their Fairview and Black Mountain locations Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Roger Queen said by that time they are usually sold out.

Debra Queen said finding a location in Black Mountain was not easy and took “blood, sweat and tears.” Roger Queen said they were only able to find their current location because they “prayed and prayed and knocked on doors.”

Their Black Mountain building sits at 213 East State St. beside Black Mountain Coins and Hunters & Treasures.

“We’re excited to be here,” Debra Queen said. “This was not an incredibly easy thing to do, but we got it done.”

The Queens said they have seen nothing but support from the community since opening, and they are looking forward to meeting new people.

Roger Queen said he takes pride in his product, and he believes they sell the freshest seafood in Western North Carolina.

“Everybody’s excited about us being here,” Roger Queen said. “We like being able to bring a good product to the community.”

SWANNANOA — A nearly 800-acre Swannanoa property that once was the intended site of a luxury housing community and a Tiger Woods-designed golf course has changed hands, but future development plans there remain unclear.

The property, located about 17 miles east of Asheville, was slated to be part of The Cliffs at High Carolina, a neighborhood project featuring about 1,000 luxury homes and what would have been the first U.S. golf course designed by Woods straddling parts of the Fairview and Swannanoa communities. It was sold in April by David Straus of Straus Family LLC for about $15.3 million.

Straus said a South Carolina-based group under the name New Fort LLC approached him to purchase the property a year ago. It had been on the market at least the past three years, listed for sale at $24 million in 2016.

"We didn't really want the property anymore and there were a lot of expenses involved in it," Straus told the Citizen Times on July 9. "At that point, the house we had on it we would use to vacation on it had been torn down to make way for the golf course. It really didn't have the kind of value to us anymore that we wanted, so we had been trying to sell it for a number of years."

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Straus had financed a 2007 deal to develop the property under The Cliffs banner through a deed of trust. The Cliffs is a series of seven private luxury communities owned by Charlotte and Charleston, South Carolina-based development company South Street Partners, which acquired them in March.

He later took back the deed after the project was hit hard by the collapse of the real estate market in the late 2000s, leading to sagging sales of the high-dollar homesites starting in price at $500,000.

A representative from The Cliffs said the company still owns some 1,900 acres adjacent to the former Straus site. David Sawyer, formerly The Cliffs Clubs managing partner, told the Citizen Times last year the company does not have any plans to commit additional funding to the High Carolina project, instead directing its attention to its Walnut Cove property in Arden and two others in South Carolina.

Not much has been publicly shared about the buyer, New Fort, a limited liability company whose registered agent is listed as Greenwood, South Carolina, attorney Douglas L. Bell. Reached by email this week, Bell said he had reached out to his client for comment.

Straus added a New Fort representative said, "in essence, he had no comment at this time." He noted he signed a nondisclosure agreement with New Fort while in the negotiation process for the land.

It is also unclear what, if any, involvement the 15-time major winner Woods might have in future iterations of the property. The distinction of the first U.S.-based Woods-designed course now belongs to Bluejack National, a private course located within a housing community in Montgomery, Texas. It opened in April 2016.

But Woods' likeness was prominently featured in a past advertising campaign for High Carolina, similar to other Cliffs properties which have golf courses designed by prominent figures such as Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

Representatives for Woods and his golf course design company, TGR Design, did not respond to requests for comment.

In 2007, Woods said he would be in Fairview "as much as much as I can" to see the golf course through to its completion. In the following years as the project took a downward turn, Woods' career also took a hit as he battled injuries and a high-profile infidelity scandal.

He returned to form this year in winning the 83rd Masters Tournament in April before being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom three weeks later, just the fourth such golfer to receive the honor.

FAIRVIEW, N.C. (WLOS) — Several viewers have reached out to News 13 about the removal of a beloved flock of geese in a mountain community.

"What happened to the flock of geese that were living in front of the TE Connectivity plant in Fairview?" writes Jan.

Another concerned viewer, Kathryn Kolbe, captured video of the removal effort back in mid-June and shared it with News 13.

We have since learned that Wildlife Services, with the US Department of Agriculture, rounded up 58 Canada geese at the request of the Fairview company.

A spokesperson for TE Connectivity, Jeff Cronin, said numerous attempts were made to try to resolve the negative impact of the geese at their site.

He provided this statement to News 13:

With the health and safety of our employees as our priority, TE Connectivity contacted the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services for recommendations and assistance after we made numerous attempts to resolve the negative impact of geese at our site in Fairview. The U.S. Department of Agriculture removed the geese under their statutory authority.

USDA officials told News 13 that both a state and federal permit were required for the removal, because the birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

USDA Public Affairs Specialist Tanya Espinosa said the geese were removed due to aggressive behavior and excessive feces.

"The geese were humanely euthanized using American Veterinary Medical Association approved methods. In this instance, they were euthanized using gas," Espinosa said.

News 13 asked why the birds were not relocated instead.

"Relocation is dictated by the state. In this instance, North Carolina does not allow for the relocation of Canada geese," Espinosa said.

Espinosa provided further insight on the removal effort through the following statement:

Wildlife Services’ efforts are conducted, by request, on private or federal and state-managed lands in response to specific requests for assistance and where permission is granted. WS programs and activities conform to all federal, state, and local laws and regulations and are designed and conducted to safeguard the environment, nontarget wildlife populations, and public safety.

WS professionals recommend and use an integrated wildlife damage management approach to reduce damage caused by specific wildlife species. This approach employs methods to prevent damage from occurring and to stop damage once it begins. All techniques used meet strict guidelines for safety, selectivity, and effectiveness. These methods may involve changing management practices, modifying habitat, dispersing animals, or removing wildlife. A combination of these approaches is generally used.

Canada geese populations have shown a resurgence in recent decades due to conservation efforts. Generally, problems arise when their numbers or density have increased in an urban area. As an example, Canada geese deposit 1/2 to 1 pound of feces per bird per day, which can significantly accumulate during molting season or on small properties with large flocks. In comparison, an average size dog generates about 1/2 pound, which responsible owners clean up.

If you have a question about something you see in the community, email [email protected].

FAIRVIEW, N.C. (WLOS) — "They say failure's not an option, and it's certainly not in this case,” said Karl Kitts, senior manager, advanced systems and architecture in TE’s Aerospace, Defense & Marine Division.

Fairview company plays a part in mission to Mercury

Sixty million miles away, a product manufactured in Fairview, North Carolina is on an important mission.

TE Connectivity in Fairview manufactured a high voltage relay that's a part of the Bepi-Colombo spacecraft, on a mission to the planet Mercury. It's a joint mission of the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The relay engineered by Karl Kitts will help slow the spacecraft to capture critical images.

BLUE ORIGIN LAUNCHES ARTWORK, MOON-LANDING TEST INTO SPACE

"I'm proud of our team here. It took a lot of work not just engineers that design these kinds of products, the technicians here in Fairview and the operators that build these products with rigor and oversight every day because they know the criticality of the mission," said Kitts.

Not only does the relay have to withstand launch, but also years of inactivity until its needed. The mission launched in 2018 and will take until 2025 to complete.

Friday, Oct. 1, the spacecraft will bypass Mercury and take its first images of the planet. There have only been three other missions to Mercury to date.

According to a release from TE Connectivity, “KILOVAC relays have been used in space applications for more than 30 years, since the first mission in lunar landing equipment in the 1970s. Today, they are used throughout the International Space Station, on NASA’s Curiosity Rover on Mars as well as extensively in space satellites.”

SPACEX LAUNCHES 4 AMATEURS ON PRIVATE EARTH-CIRCLING TRIP

“The KILOVAC relays have a long history of proven reliability in space missions and applications,” Kitts said. “The extensive testing process built a high degree of confidence in the relay’s suitability for the application and, for many engineers who have specified relays over the years, the KILOVAC relay is synonymous with rugged reliability in the most demanding environments.”

“The KILOVAC K41R high voltage relay uses a vacuum dielectric to achieve a compact size of 2.5-inch length and a weight of 1 ounce. It has a mechanical life of 1 million cycles and a fast-operating speed of 6 milliseconds, making it a highly reliable solution for space applications. The high voltage relay plays a crucial role in the power distribution of the low and high voltage power required by the electric propulsion used to control the spacecraft orientation, direction and speed,” according to TE Connectivity.

“It’s the ability of these relays to perform in the extreme conditions of the space environment while handling high voltages that make them particularly suitable for missions like BepiColombo,” says Peter Kohlmeier, program manager for TE’s Aerospace, Defense and Marine Division. “Performance, reliability and safety in harsh environments are incredibly important priorities for our space industry partners, and TE has the engineering expertise to align with these priorities.”

The historic BepiColombo mission is named in honor of the Italian mathematician and engineer Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo, and it is scheduled to complete a total of six flyby events before arriving at the planet by Dec. 5, 2025, when it would become only the third mission to date to visit Mercury.

For more information on TE’s space industry expertise or its KILOVAC family of relay products, visit HERE.

FOLLOW THE BEPICOLOMBO MISSION

You can follow the BepiColombo mission and its journey HERE.

N.C. House District 115 includes the communities of Fairview, Black Mountain, part of Swannanoa, Barnardsville, Weaverville, Alexander and part of Leicester.

John Ager

Party: Democrat

Home: Fairview

Current job: Farmer, legislator in N.C. House

Experience: One term in the N.C. House, chair of the Buncombe County Agricultural Advisory Committee, member of the Land Conservation Advisory Board, former trustee of Warren Wilson College, published author, former history teacher, manager of the McClure Fund.

Education: Bachelor's degree, Williams College

Age: 67

What would be your top priorities over the next two years?

My top priority is to expand Medicare to the 500,000 people with incomes too low for insurance and repeal HB2. We need to address climate change and growing income inequality and find ways to make family life more affordable. We need to reform N.C. politics: end the gerrymander, end targeted voter suppression, and reduce the influence of money in our elections. I am also interested in supporting our local state agencies: the veteran's cemetery, long-term health care facility for veterans, the drug rehab facility, Vance Birthplace, and the various correctional facilities in my district.

What, if anything, do you think the state should do next on House Bill 2?

The General Assembly needs to repeal House Bill 2, and this election will determine how quickly that will occur. I am proud to be one of the 23 members of the House who voted against it in March, and continue to fight for repeal. I am pleased we convinced the Southern Conference to keep their basketball tournament in Asheville in 2017, but they have made it clear that they want HB2 repealed. The North Carolina brand around the world is HB2, and we need to once again become a state that welcomes everyone to do business here.

What steps should state government take to grow the North Carolina economy?

In the long term, we need to re-dedicate ourselves to building a first class education system. Economic growth follows talent. We need to tackle deferred maintenance of our transportation system, which includes moving forward with the I-26 Connector. Bringing broadband "connectivity" throughout our state is also a key infrastructure investment. I am particularly interested in supporting our small mountain farms, linking young farm families with good land and bringing new crops forward like hemp. Also, our calling card as a region is our clean air, clean water and fabulous recreational opportunities, and these assets need to be preserved and enhanced.

Over the last four years, the state has reduced some taxes and shifted more of the tax burden from income to sales taxes. What is your view of this trend and should it continue?

I oppose this trend as it is a redistribution of state revenue collection from the wealthy to the working families of our state. We need to budget what it costs to re-dedicate N.C. to building a world class educational system from pre-K to the university and community college systems, and then find the revenue to support it. We need to bring back the Earned Income Tax Credit to help the low income working families make ends meet. Taxing movies and car repair labor while increasing state fees is a regressive strategy for raising state revenues.

What are the next steps you think the state should take regarding education?

North Carolina now has five secondary school systems: traditional neighborhood public schools, charter schools, private school vouchers, virtual schools and the Achievement School District. Priority number one is to resolve long term the funding formula for traditional public schools and charter schools, so that both are able to deliver high quality educations. Secondly, charter schools need to be closely monitored to make sure they are fiscally sound and will not close in the middle of a school year. Thirdly, no private school should receive a N.C. voucher that is not accredited. Virtual schools are performing poorly, and the ASD is unproven.

Frank Moretz

Party: Republican

Home: Fairview

Current job: Retired physician

Experience: Anesthesiologist who practiced at Mission Health and its predecessors for 34 years, partner at Highland Brewing, member of the Board of Visitors at UNC-Chapel Hill, Air Force veteran.

Education: Undergraduate, medical school and residency in anesthesiology, all at UNC-Chapel Hill

Age: 67

What would be your top priorities over the next two years?

Economic development, mental health, Medicaid reform, the narcotic addiction crisis and education.

What, if anything, do you think the state should do next on House Bill 2?

This issue is currently in the court, and it will decide. The N.C. Legislature has stated that it will repeal HB2 if Charlotte will repeal its ordinance, and this could also settle the issue.

What steps should state government take to grow the North Carolina economy?

Responsible regulatory reform. Current regulations have made it difficult to start, run, and grow a business. We can have regulations that do not stifle business and that do not harm the environment.

Over the last four years, the state has reduced some taxes and shifted more of the tax burden from income to sales taxes. What is your view of this trend and should it continue?

This has worked well in Tennessee, Florida, and Texas, and cutting taxes on businesses and all incomes is working well here, North Carolina being the third fastest growing state in the Union. North Carolina is not only competitive with other states, it is leading the way. That said, I will evaluate each proposal based on its impact to middle-class families in our area and believe any proposal must first help them.

What are the next steps you think the state should take regarding education?

Education represents 57 percent of the state budget. The amount of money available is not the issue, the issue is how the money is being used. We need to prioritize in-classroom funding, including teacher pay. As the legislature turned a $2 billion deficit in the Medicaid program into a $300 million surplus, economies can also be found in educational dollars. I do not believe in the "one size fits all" approach to education. Education should be tailored to individual students to prepare them for a career and/or higher education. Every classroom in N.C. being connected to the internet is a step in this direction.