Home Care In Fearrington, NC

At Smith + Gardner, John Fearrington, Project Engineer, manages solid waste facility construction projects, such as Subtitle D cell construction, permanent and temporary closures, landfill gas collection and control systems, and stormwater management infrastructure. He has also assisted public and private clients outside the landfill industry to develop solar and composting facilities.

In this interview, Fearrington, a Waste360 40 Under 40 award recipient, discusses how he puts his engineering skills to use at Smith + Gardner, and how he works with clients to use innovative new technologies and materials to address evolving waste management challenges.

This interview has been edited for length.

Waste360: What brought you to Smith + Gardner?

John Fearrington: I started in 2011, while I was actually in school at NC State University, which is about a mile-and-a-half down the road from our office in Raleigh, NC. Stacey Smith, who is the president of our company, had always hired civil engineering students part-time or through internships, to give them an idea of what it's like to work in a civil engineering office.

From there, I completely changed my major discipline, and transitioned from structural engineering into the kind of geo-tech solid waste field that I'm in today. I graduated as a structural engineer. I continued to work with Smith + Gardner after I graduated.

Waste360: What was it that you experienced that changed your mind?

John Fearrington: I think I realized that in the solid waste industry, every site is slightly different, and when I was in school, it seemed like when I was doing structural engineering, a lot of it was looking things up in a book. Steel is about the same across the whole entire country. It seemed very systematic versus the landfill business.

[There is] the complexity of each engineering system, but also how even though every site has the same components, you have to design them slightly different. You have to continue to learn and adapt. I knew I had to continually increase my knowledge base to survive and thrive in this business.

Waste360: What are a couple recent projects that you worked on, and what are some considerations that you had to take into account as you were designing them?

John Fearrington: I think the biggest thing, for me, is managing our clients as a consultant. Managing our client expectations and working with them to provide for their needs. From there, it’s trying to provide all aspects of the business, or engineering, that I can to them. Whether it’s from building cells to helping design gas systems or stormwater systems. I try to do as much as I can, and, luckily, we have a very strong group of senior engineers at our company that kind of help fill in the knowledge gaps that I may have. It really is about trying to learn to be a better project manager.

Right now, I’m working on some local permitting for a compost facility; doing some financial models for capital forecasting for solid waste management facilities across the U.S.; as well as leading construction projects, which is a significant part of our business.

One of the things we're starting to see more of is landfills postponing final cover, especially at municipal solid waste landfill facilities. As the landfills continue to age, they will settle, they will shrink, as the waste consolidates over time. We've started to install temporary geosynthetic covers, which are just an exposed plastic film. That way we prevent rainwater infiltration and leachate into the landfill, which is a significant cost.

I've been working on one site that has been putting out the geosynthetic covers since 2014, and there is a variety of materials, and ballast solutions to hold the materials in place from wind uplift or gas pressure uplift. Every time we put these materials out, it seems like we uncover something new, whether there's a substantial amount of gas that's lifting the geosynthetic materials, and having to put in new subsurface gas collectors, or it’s controlling stormwater as it cascades over top of the material. And then the UV degradation over time. We've seen materials kind of almost disintegrate. … You want to come up with the best product that's going to last the longest, but we're still learning what those products are, and how to use them. It's been continual. Luckily, our client is very receptive to us trying new things. As they're providing input with us, we have that teamwork mentality of, we know we're all using these new products together, but we're learning at the same time. It's been an experience.

Waste360: What education prepared you for your current role?

John Fearrington: I would say a lot of it was onsite or in the company. I was fortunate that when I joined, I was the youngest engineer by about 20 years. I was able to learn, but it was also a little stressful. I felt like I was so far behind them for obvious reasons, they have been in the industry for 15 to 30 years.

I was fortunate to work with clients who were understanding, and who shared their experience with me. Stacey Smith and John Gardner, and the other senior engineers in our company sat down and worked with me to make sure I understood all the aspects, but it was a frightening time when I was sent down to Georgia in my first year, and given a project to try to run.

You have to be humble in that experience because you’re sitting in a room, and everyone is 25 years older than you, looking at you to make the right decisions. You have to know what you know, and know what you don't, and be able to ask the right questions. If you don't know the questions, don't be afraid—whether it's your clients, or the contractors—to get input from everybody, because we try to take a teamwork approach on some of the construction projects.

Being young and still learning, I tried to just absorb from every single person I came in contact with to make myself a better professional later on.

About the Author(s)

Willona Sloan

Freelance writer, Waste360

Willona Sloan is a freelance writer for Waste360 covering the collection and transfer beat.

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Florence Fearrington ’58, one of the preeminent female rare book collectors of our time and a longtime supporter of UNC-Chapel Hill, has donated nearly 4,000 books and objects valued at $6.2 million to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries, where it will become part of the Wilson Special Collections Library.

“Florence Fearrington’s legacy of generosity and commitment to Carolina has been instrumental to our University Libraries,” said Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz. “This collection of rare books, with the love and dedication that went into its curation, will enhance our special collections and will draw future generations of students, researchers and experts from around the world. We are grateful that Florence has trusted Carolina as a home for her invaluable collection.”

The collection includes 1,900 rare books, most on the subject of natural history, including beautifully illustrated books on malacology — the study of shells and mollusks — and books, catalogs and prints on Wunderkammers, or “cabinets of curiosity.” The collection also includes a number of pre-1915 children’s books, 13 color-plate costume books and thousands of reference books that complement the subject matter of the rare books.

“Florence has established a meaningful legacy based on her passion for our natural world, the book arts and Carolina’s Libraries,” said Elaine L. Westbrooks, vice provost for University Libraries and University Librarian. “I firmly believe that an education at Carolina is qualitatively different thanks to the amazing collections that we build here and the inspiring generosity of donors like Florence Fearrington, who make that work possible.”

All of these books will soon be available to patrons — students, faculty, researchers and the general public. Once cataloged, the collection will also be available online.

In addition, Wilson Library is planning an exhibition of the malacology books in spring 2021 — but this won’t be the first time Carolina will see books and ephemera from this intriguing collection. In 2012, Fearrington curated an exhibition, “Rooms of Wonder: From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599–1899,” mostly drawn from her collection of books about Wunderkammers, at The Grolier Club in New York City. A version of this exhibition was displayed at Wilson Library in 2014.

Fearrington’s previous contributions to Carolina include gifts to University Libraries’ Rare Book Collection, and she established the Joseph Peyton Fearrington and James Cornelius Pass Fearrington Fund at the Health Sciences Library.

In 2016, she gave $5 million in support of the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, earmarking $1 million to help update the grand reading room and adjacent exhibition areas in Wilson Library. The remaining $4 million created the Fearrington Special Collections Library Fund. The University Librarian and the director of the Louis Round Wilson Library may use income from this endowment to meet emerging needs and pursue opportunities that benefit Carolina students and enhance the work of researchers. In recognition of this substantial gift, the grand reading room in Wilson Library was renamed the Fearrington Reading Room.

Fearrington grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and received a degree in mathematics from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1958. Unable to attend business school at Carolina because the program did not yet admit women, she earned a certificate from the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business in 1961. She moved to New York City, where she made her name in the male-dominated world of finance, establishing Florence Fearrington Inc., a highly successful money management firm. She sold the firm to U.S. Trust in 1997 — around the time she started seriously collecting rare books.

Fearrington was honored as a distinguished alumna at University Day in 2016 for her pioneering career in finance and achievements as a collector of rare books. She currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her most recent gift counts toward the University’s most ambitious fundraising campaign in history, For All Kind: the Campaign for Carolina, launched in October 2017. As of June 2020, the University has raised more than two-thirds of its goal to reach $4.25 billion by December of 2022.

A developer has big plans for land across the highway from Fearrington Village.

Avra Development, a Pittsboro-based LLC, bought over 60 acres off U.S. 15-501 for $4.75 million, according to a deed filed Oct. 6 in Chatham County. Aldo Bartolone, manager of Avra Development, told TBJ in an email that plans for the land include an 80,000-square-foot neighborhood center plus four outparcels.

"It sits across from the charming Fearrington Village," Bartolone said. "Our design will be of the same quality."

Bartolone said it is early in the development process and a timeline hasn't been established. He said the goal is to attract a grocery store, bank, health care center, pharmacy, restaurants and other retailers to the site.

"We are excited to be a part of the growing 15-501 corridor from the UNC campus to the north and southward to Pittsboro and Chatham Park," Bartolone said.

Fearrington Village is an English-inspired community with hundreds of homes, the Fearrington House Inn and several restaurants. The land used to be Fearrington farm – which traced its roots back to the 1770s, according to the village's website – before being purchased by the Fitch family, which started developing the land in the 1970s.

Avra Development's planned retail center, which sits to the south of the massive Briar Chapel residential development, will be in the middle of one of the hottest places for new housing in the Triangle – the area in and around Pittsboro.

As work continues on the enormous Chatham Park development slated to include 22,000 new homes at full buildout, plans are continually being submitted for other housing developments nearby like the 2,200-home Townsend Tract community, a 370-acre mixed-use development and a 115-lot luxury home community.

Evan Hoopfer covers real estate and economic development in the Greater Triangle, focusing on the counties outside Wake and Durham. Have a tip? Reach him at [email protected] or (919) 327-1012.

One of North Carolina’s hallowed kitchens has a new chef at the helm.

The Fearrington House Restaurant, an avant-garde dining room on a historic farm, announced this week that Paul Gagne will step into the resort’s executive chef position. After 16 years, chef Colin Bedford is departing Fearrington, leaving a legacy that includes the restaurant recently being named one of the world’s best by Forbes Travel Guide.

Gagne was promoted from executive sous chef to the resort’s top culinary role.

“We are extremely grateful to Colin for his exceptional and lengthy service to Fearrington, and his mentorship of Paul,” said Fearrington general manager Theresa Chiettini in a release. “Colin will always be part of the Fearrington family, and we are delighted to extend this opportunity to Paul — who has been our executive sous chef for five years.”

Fearrington, a sprawling resort and community near Pittsboro marking its 40th anniversary this fall, has a dining history that includes some of the South’s most acclaimed chefs, including Ben and Karen Barker and Edna Lewis. Under Bedford, its dining room served seasonal tasting menus that reached the top tier of fine dining.

Gagne grew up in a small town in New York state, where his first job was washing dishes in a restaurant. He said he came from a family where both sides were strong home cooks and he learned his way around a kitchen. After high school and a few years of restaurant jobs, his family suggested culinary school.

“At that point I had never thought of cooking as a career,” Gagne said. “But I was good at it and thought maybe that wasn’t a bad idea.”

At 24, Gagne went to the New England Culinary Institute and in 2012, while in school, followed his future wife to North Carolina and interned at Fearrington.

During Gagne’s first prep shift at the Fearrington, he said the lights of the gleaming kitchen were so bright he got a migraine.

“Everything was going full tilt,” Gagne said. “But I picked it up quickly.”

In that kitchen and Bedford’s menu at the time, Gagne said he saw fine dining in a new way.

“You see stuff like that on TV, but I didn’t think people actually plated plates that artistically,” Gagne said. “I liked it right away. I loved being in the kitchen right away. I was stoked to be here. I was always wanting to learn more, to push myself further. I don’t do well with stagnation.”

After culinary school Gagne cooked at Charlotte’s Ballantyne Hotel and later came to Raleigh and worked as the executive chef of French restaurant Coquette.

Gagne said he was then drawn back to Fearrington, finding the kitchen to be a rare blend of artistry and cutting edge techniques.

“Building the plate, sure that’s artistry,” Gagne said. “But I always saw the cooking side as science. That’s how I make sense of everything. If I touch a piece of steak, I want to understand how to do it better.”

Now, Gagne inherits the creative reins to a famous Southern restaurant at a redefining moment for fine dining. He said he expects the special occasion moments that bring diners to Fearrington will continue to be craved through the end and after the pandemic.

“In a lot of ways this is a once-in-a-lifetime job,” Gagne said. “I don’t think fine dining is going anywhere.”

Visitors love staying at five North Carolina resorts. So much so, the hotel destinations now rank among the best the South.

The Swag — a retreat in the mountain town of Waynesville — was named the region’s No. 1 place to stay. Other resorts in North Carolina weren’t too far behind on the Travel + Leisure list, including:

Travel + Leisure published the list July 11 as it revealed the winners of its “World’s Best” awards. To come up with the findings, the magazine said it conducted an “extensive” survey that allowed readers to vote on their favorite vacation destinations “based on a number of characteristics for which they could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor.” More than 100,000 readers responded from Oct. 24 to Feb. 27.

In the survey, the magazine categorized each accommodation as a “resort hotel, city hotel, or safari lodge based on their location and amenities.” The survey focused on several aspects, including service, food and costs.

On the resulting list, North Carolina resorts made their mark, sweeping up half of the top 10 spots in the South.

The Swag, roughly 40 miles west of Asheville, topped the list after travelers raved about the resort’s mountain scenery and activities, which range from yoga to wine tastings, according to Travel + Leisure and the resort’s website.

Also in Western North Carolina, the town of Highlands “has fewer than 2,000 full-time residents but is home to three ranked resorts.” Those properties — Skyline Lodge, Old Edwards Inn and Spa, and Half-Mile Farm — all received nods for their picturesque settings and amenities.

Rounding out the list of North Carolina winners was The Fearrington House Inn in Pittsboro, roughly 30 miles west of Raleigh. Travel + Leisure described the hotel as a “countryside getaway with 32 guest rooms, a spa, perfectly manicured gardens, and shopping and dining at the English-inspired Fearrington Village.”

The accolade comes a year after the village’s Fearrington House Restaurant ranked among the “most outstanding” places to eat in the world, McClatchy News reported.

In the more recent rankings, Travel + Leisure also named the best resorts in the country. The top spot went to Goldener Hirsch in the skiing hot spot of Park City, Utah.

The Southern rankings were based on votes for hotels in the following states: “Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia” and West Virginia, the magazine wrote in its report.