Why Would the Watauga GOP Nominate Anne Marie Yates to the BOE?

High Country Press

According to reporting in the Watauga Democrat, the Watauga Republican Party nominated Anne Marie Yates to the Watauga Board of Elections. Interesting idea, since Ms. Yates's husband Perry is a County Commissioner who would presumably be running for reelection during her term of service -- creating a flagrant conflict of interest.

Or perhaps her nomination was actually a veiled announcement that Mr. Yates will not be seeking reelection in 2020?

The Change-Over in Watauga County Government

This morning the Watauga County Commission came under Democratic control after six years under the Republicans. With the swearing in of newly elected Democratic Commissioner Larry Turnbow and the seating of Democratic Commissioner John Welch as the new Chair of the Board, Watauga enters a new era.

Equally consequential: the firing of the Eggers Eggers Eggers and Eggers law firm as counsel and the hiring of the di Santi, Watson, Capua, Wilson, & Garrett law firm. No more "Four" Eggers, and for that, we thank you!

Everything was harmony and light this morning. Republican Commissioner Perry Yates nominated John Welch for the chairmanship and expressed his eagerness to work together with the new Democratic majority. All votes after that were unanimous (granted, there was nothing controversial on the agenda).

Commissioners Blust and Yates Rewrite History

High Country Press put up videos of county commissioners David Blust and Perry Yates (and all the other commish candidates) responding to pablum questions about recreation and giving their pablum answers. As a witness said, "Yadda yadda yadda." But in the process, commissioners Blust and Yates managed to completely hide their records on the topic, and no one challenged them.

At a May 2013 commissioners meeting, Blust and Yates were the two votes against extending the Brookshire Park greenway under the New River bridge at Hwy 421. Those of us attending that meeting heard Mr. Blust diss greenway and trail projects as a potential money suck down the road. No surprise. Blust has always expressed disdain for maintaining the Brookshire greenway and the Rocky Knob bike park. So Blust and Yates voted "nay" on a procedural motion to go forward with an environmental assessment of the proposed greenway extension under Hwy 421. The Blust-Yates "no" votes would have killed the project in its infancy.

The minutes of that May commish meeting are here. Coverage of the vote didn't make the local press until June 10, in this paragraph at the end of an article titled "Vulnerable greenway projects may see reprieve":

Not everyone is as enthusiastic as others about the planned trail projects. County commissioners Perry Yates and David Blust last month voted against an environmental assessment contract for the 421 underpass. Blust expressed concerns about the future costs of maintaining the trail. The contract was approved by a 3-2 vote, however.

Another local citizen who witnessed the Blust/Yates "no" vote, and who has a vital interest in bike trails in our county, wrote me the following in an email:

Mr. Blust (and apparently Mr. Yates) seem to be concerned about the "future costs of maintaining the trail." I'd like to ask exactly what costs they are concerned about, and whether or not they consider trail maintenance money well spent, given the number of the public who make daily use of this infrastructure for recreation, wellness, and commuting? What maintenance costs scare them so? Mowing the borders? Occasional gravel backfill? This 'penny wise/pound foolish' approach to trails is difficult to understand given the over $47,000 spent on intervening in the ETJ lawsuit, which both men supported....

I ride a bike everywhere, so this stuff matters to me. When Blust in that meeting in 2013 said, 'I'm worried about saddling the taxpayers with maintenance of the trail' and voted 'Nay'-- it was one of the most monumentally stupid things I've ever witnessed.

To now witness Blust and Yates get away with appearing supportive of greenways and recreation in general, and not be called out on their past votes, is a little galling.

Republican County Commissioners Come Unglued

Stella Anderson, the lone Democrat on the Watauga Board of Elections (BOE), appeared before the County Commission last night and requested that Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") be relieved of his duty as counsel to the BOE and that another attorney be found to advise the board. Anderson's reasons included the thoroughly partisan nature of Four Eggers' involvement with the BOE and a pattern of misrepresentation or manipulation of election law for partisan Republican advantage.

The Republicans on the Commish starting yelling, particularly the two Republicans up for reelection, Perry Yates and David Blust. The bottom-line: These guys want everyone to know that they're perfectly happy with the activities of Four Eggers, and they intend to cling to him, even as the ship goes down.

Commissioner Perry Yates accused Anderson of impugning Four Eggers' reputation. I believe the Winston-Salem Journal, in a front-page investigation in 2013, beat Anderson to that punch. As did the revelation of emails between Four Eggers and then State Board of Elections member Paul Foley, which revealed the behind-the-scenes scheming and manipulation of the county attorney.

Commissioner David Blust was all righteous indignation: I have never tried to suppress the votes of anyone! But for the record, here he is, on video, telling AppState students directly that he did not think they had any right to vote in local elections, in which he was running at the time:



Since our county government intends to protect Four Eggers at all costs, it will take the voters to change county government, at which point Four Eggers will be history.

The Rise & Fall of a Scenic Highway

April 3, 2000

Watauga County Commission votes unanimously to make the Doc & Merle Watson Hwy (construction just beginning) a scenic hwy, an essentially cosmetic designation (county-designated "scenic" roads carried fewer restrictions than did state-designated "scenic" roads), but the county's designation did prohibit billboards and off-premise signs on the roadway. The push for scenic designation is coming mainly from the business community, led by John Cooper of the Mast Store. The Committee of 100, an economic development arm of county government, and prominent members of the Chamber of Commerce also support scenic designation. On the other side of the argument -- against any restrictions on advertizing and therefore opposed to scenic designation  -- are business leaders Joe Miller (Boone Drug, Cheap Joe's) and Brad Moretz (Ski Mountain), among others.

Early 2002

Attitude on Commish has shifted strongly against scenic designation, partly as reaction to Widespread Panic that "zoning" is coming to Watauga! Democratic Commissioners Sue Sweeting and Pat Wilkie become bumper-sticker targets of "No Zoners." A "scenic byway" that restricts business -- in any shape, form, or fashion -- has become anathama.

June 18, 2002

Watauga County Commission votes not to seek scenic byway designation from the state for the Doc & Merle Watson Hwy.  Two of three Dems on the Commish (Sue Sweeting and Pat Wilkie) vote for scenic designation; third Dem and Chair of the Commish at that time, Jimmy Hodges, votes with the two Repubs to defeat.

Sept. 17, 2002

[lifted from Co Commish official minutes]

SCENIC HIGHWAY DISCUSSION

            Mr. Joe Furman apologized for an omission in information given to the Board in 2000 when the Doc and Merle Watson Highway was designated as a scenic highway. County Attorney Hedrick stated that a scenic highway is designated locally and that a scenic byway is designated by the State. The County Attorney stated that the Watauga County Board of Commissioners designated the Doc and Merle Watson Highway as a scenic highway in 2000 and that designation legally stands.

            Per Board instructions, six citizens were scheduled to speak for 5 minutes each; 3 in favor of the designation and 3 opposed to the designation.

            Mr. Brad Moretz, Ms. Lila Phillips, and Ms. Deborah Greene spoke in opposition to the scenic highway designation and requested that Board rescind the resolution from 2000 designating the Doc and Merle Watson Highway as scenic.

            Mr. Phil Minor, Ms. Susan Phipps, and Ms. Velma Burnley spoke in support of keeping the scenic highway designation.

            No Board action was required and none was taken.

Oct. 3, 2002

The Partnership for Watauga's Future, a coalition of business/environmental activists, stages a "community walk" on a section of the still unfinished Doc & Merle Watson Hwy. Hundreds show up and walk about two miles. Doc Watson himself shows up with his brother. Watson also signs the petition to keep the road "scenic."

June 2003

Watauga County Commish reaffirms its opposition to the state about scenic byway designation. All five commissioners are voting in lock-step: Republicans James Coffey, Keith Honeycutt, David Blust, Allen Trivette, and Democrat Jimmy Hodges. But local representative on the state Board of Transportation, Caldwell County's Sam Erby, privately favors scenic designation (not a well kept secret).

July 25, 2003

Despite the preferences of Co Commissioners and the vociferousness of "no zoners," led by Deborah Greene, the NC Dept. of Transportation schedules a public hearing on scenic byway designation for Aug. 20, 2003, at the Broyhill Inn.

August 20, 2003

Hundreds of people show up for public hearing, with slightly over 100 of them signing up to speak, on both sides (though only 15% of speakers opposed scenic designation). The crowd as a whole leans decidedly toward scenic byway designation. State Senator Virginia Foxx tries to grandstand for the "no-zoners" and is shut down by the moderator. (She'll go on to run successfully for Congress in 2004.)

December 4, 2003

Despite opposition from Watauga Co. Commish and many citizens, the NC Bd of Transportation votes in favor of scenic byway designation.

[13 years pass]

April 5, 2016

Watauga Co Commish votes 3-2 along party lines not to challenge the Watauga Bd of Adjustment's decision that the Johnny Hampton family had every right under God's blue heaven to sell a "polluting industry license" to Maymead. Jimmy Hodges, now chair of the Commish and now a registered Republican, votes with fellow Republicans David Blust and Perry Yates not to defend the scenic integrity of the Doc & Merle Watson Hwy. Democratic commissioners John Welch and Billy Kennedy vote to appeal the BOA decision.

Today

The air quality license for the planned Maymead asphalt plant on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Byway is on hold until Maymead fixes environmental violations at their existing plant in Boone. 

Welcome to your future, Doc & Merle Watson!

The Toxic Legacy of Commissioners Miller, Hodges, Yates, and Blust

While Watauga County Commissioners Jimmy Hodges, Perry Yates, and David Blust were turning a deaf ear to the pleas of citizens to appeal the Maymead asphalt decision to Superior Court -- because it would cost too much -- they were paying out to Eggers Eggers Eggers & Eggers over $47,000 to intervene in the Boone ETJ lawsuit.

[Above: the accounting of what's been paid to Eggers x 4 in the matter of the Boone ETJ lawsuit intervention]

Priorities? Yeah, both the Maymead decision and the ETJ lawsuit intervention reveal very clear priorities. If Boone loses its ETJ, there goes any zoning restrictions that would keep an asphalt plant, a cement facility, a race track from imposing their charms on a Boone ETJ residential neighborhood.

That's where commissioners Hodges, Yates, and Blust stand.

To be fair, the decision to intervene in the Boone ETJ lawsuit was initiated by then Commission Chair Nathan Miller (who's also represented both the fairgrounds race track and the cement plant in their efforts to subvert Boone's land-use regs). Both Yates and Blust went along with Miller. They share the blame. They must also now share the fall-out.

Will Watauga County Appeal Its Board of Adjustment Decision in the Maymead Case?

"Four" Eggers

Word is filtering out that Watauga County Attorney "Four" Eggers was first suggesting to his bosses that they don't have standing to appeal their own Board of Adjustment decision in the case of Maymead Asphalt, and then he changed his tune slightly and began saying that it would be highly unusual for a county to appeal to superior court a decision by its own Board of Adjustment.

Both of those suggestions are incorrect.

What's not at all unusual is that the commissioners appointed every one of those members of the Board of Adjustments and those members follow the Republican line of "you can't tell a feller what he can and can't do on his own property. My property rights ABOVE your rights to health, safety, and the enjoyment of your investment in hearth and home."

Those property rights chickens are now roosting on the commissioners' porch railing. And they have a decision to make Tuesday night, at Commissioner John Welch's insistence that they consider appealing the decision of the Board of Adjustment in the Maymead Asphalt plant on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Highway.

Concerned about the cost of an appeal, are they? Where was their concern about legal expenses when they voted to intervene in the Town of Boone's lawsuit against the state in protecting its right to Extraterritorial Jurisdiction?

In November 2014, in his last meeting as a member of the Watauga County Commission, Chair Nathan Miller voted to spend unreported amounts of taxpayer money to intervene in the Boone ETJ case in advance of a hearing by a three-judge panel (which Boone won, incidentally). Miller was joined in that vote by fellow Republican commissioners Perry Yates and David Blust.

Miller is gone from the commission, where he delighted in punishing the town of Boone for its very existence. But Yates and Blust still sit up there making decisions that affect the health and safety of large numbers of citizens, and the future for all of us.

If they take bad legal advice from "Four" Eggers and/or if they refuse to pursue their legal rights in the interests of protecting the citizens, then hell may be cool compared to the fury of voters in November.

Possible Appeal of Maymead Asphalt Decision On County Commish Agenda Next Week

County Commissioner John Welch has requested an agenda item for the commission's regular evening meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 16 (5:30 p.m.): Discussion of the Watauga Board of Adjustment's surprising decision to restore Maymead Asphalt's revoked permit to cook paving material on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Highway.

Prevailing rumor is that Commission Chair Jimmy Hodges is against an appeal. So, too, probably are Perry Yates and David Blust, both of whom are up for reelection this year. Those three hold the power to appeal to superior court their own Board of Adjustment's unaccountable decision.

Reelection. Hope for and fear about. That's the leverage the people have now on the issue of bringing more pollution into this county and plopping it down on a scenic highway and in the middle of residential properties.

How Is Maymead Asphalt Like a Bakery?

"And we know you love them too!"

It was a packed house at this morning's Watauga County Commission meeting. Maymead Materials Inc., the asphalt producer that wants a new plant on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Byway, asked and received 20 minutes of the commissioners' time to present their side in the fight over whether the county should allow them to set up in near proximity to many residences and two schools.

I was expecting a legal argument from Maymead ... that the company is already "vested" in that property and therefore can't be stopped, or that the county's 30-day moratorium is illegal, or that proposed changes to the High Impact Land Use Ordinance are arbitrary and capricious.

Instead, the audience got a dog-and-pony show -- a bunch of assertions offered by a Greensboro lawyer and a female project manager that asphalt is a naturally occurring substance and is perfectly harmless and that a bread bakery emits as many volatile compounds as an asphalt plant and if asphalt fumes are harmful then why doesn't OSHA make workers wear protective gear, and what's all the fuss any way?

The Maymead female project manager was the comic highlight of the morning. She actually showed slides of herself posing with her two small children with various Maymead asphalt facilities in the background, trying to prove (we assume) that asphalt is tee-totally safe for small children, or at least a convenient backdrop for company-inspired photo ops, but really proving that some professionals will use their own children as cynical props for company P.R. It was enough to make your skin crawl.

This combined assault by Maymead on the audience's logic and its patience reminded me very much of the current incessant TV ads produced by Sea World to convince us all that keeping killer whales in confinement really expresses love for the animals. Those creepy ads have set a new benchmark for industry hypocrisy, and they fool no one. Same for Maymead this morning.

On the other side of the issue, the Commission heard from more than a dozen speakers who pointed out the glaring holes in the county's current High Impact Land Use Ordinance, particularly its lack of public notice/public hearing when a proposed polluting industry wants to locate here. County Planner Joe Furman can very quietly approve those applications -- as he did for Johnny Hampton several years ago, the permit that Maymead has been trying to ride to glory by simple transference of name. The first thing anyone knows who lives nearby is that work has begun. That sick, sinking feeling can visit any homeowner at any time in this county.

The Commission took no action after the public hearing, and one wonders what the three-Republican majority will do, because they hold the power. Can't help but note that circulating among them this morning was former Commission Chair Nathan Miller, who's on record as opposing any government regulation over any land use that a land owner can think up. He was there, perhaps, to jerk a knot in his former obedient followers, commissioners Perry Yates and David Blust, who in a moment of weakness voted for the present moratorium. Nathan Miller will put an end to further and future weaknesses if he can.

ADDENDUM
Oops. Left the meeting early. The Commission did vote 4-1 to add a 750-foot buffer from residential property lines and a 1,500-foot buffer from scenic byways and the Blue Ridge Parkway to the High Impact Land Use Ordinance. They did not add a provision for public notice/public hearing to the ordinance. The single no vote was Commissioner John Welch, who thought the amendments to the HILU ordinance did not go far enough.

Will the Watauga County Commission Do Anything About the Proposed Maymead Asphalt Plant?

The Watauga County Commission won't do anything to protect the citizens from another asphalt plant if they listen to their attorney, that's for sure.

The attorney representing Eggers Eggers Eggers & Eggers was very discouraging when Commissioner John Welch asked what the procedures were for instituting a moratorium, which is what the majority of the speakers at the public hearing tonight begged the commissioners to pass. Oh it's very difficult, it's very hard, it has to pass rigorous tests, EggersEggersEggersEggers belly-ached, but every specific "test" to warrant a moratorium that EggersEtc. mentioned seemed like a snap to me, especially the presence of an "immediate threat."

What is the proposed Maymead asphalt plant on the Doc & Merle Watson Scenic Byway if not an immediate threat?

Commission Chair Jimmy Hodges said that his fellow commissioners would be considering their options as they went into closed session with their -- ahem! -- attorney, the ineffable Republican agglomeration of EggersEggersSquared. Everyone left the commissioners' meeting at that point, for their closed session. I didn't wait around for them to come out of closed session, and neither did any members of the press. Maybe someone is posted as a guard of the public trust there and will let the rest of us know if the Eggers' brand held the commissioners in check and if they might have stumbled into actually doing something for the rest of us.

Jimmy Hodges, as always now, is the swing vote. The other two Republicans were noticeable silent after the public hearing, though you could see Mr. David Blust's body language and Mr. Perry Yates's facial expression as not-prepared-to-take-action "tells." Mr. Hodges, on the other hand (along with the two Democrats, John Welch and Billy Kennedy), was at least mouthing sympathy and understanding for the plight of residents and school children at two elementary schools near where Maymead intends -- by its own estimate -- to spew 62.32 tons yearly of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds. (Several people during the public hearing said they didn't believe Maymead's estimate for their own pollution -- why would they have any incentive to be honest under NC's current trust-the-polluter regime? -- and neither do I. Those estimates of air pollution are quite simply public jokes worthy of public ridicule.)

Anyway ... Jimmy Hodges, he's the man with the power to do something. Will he? Dunno. He has a history of voting for moratoria on asphalt plants back in the 1990s when he was first on the County Commission. But, of course, he's become a registered Republican since that time, and it's the ironclad Republican doctrine that private land ownership trumps public health, private investment by the neighbors, and the moral dictates of God Himself.

Meanwhile in Watauga: Not Quite 'The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius,' But Closer Than We Were

The second day of the budget workshops clinched the impression that the Watauga County Commission (still 3-2, Republican advantage) has gone decidedly moderate since the departure of former Chair Nathan Miller. Under new board Chair Jimmy Hodges (a former Democrat, ahem), there's a whole new tone of expansive progressivism. Or maybe we should hedge our bets and borrow presidential candidate Jeb Bush's term for the campaign he intends to run: "an inclusive conservatism."

I knew we were in very different post-Nathan Miller territory when Democratic Commissioner Billy Kennedy pushed yesterday, on the final afternoon of the budget workshops, for a $10,000 grant for the Hospitality House. If you'll recall, under the Nathan Miller Regime, funding for most non-profits was either greatly reduced or zeroed out. The Hospitality House was a particular target for zeroing out, and for the last few budget cycles it got nothing from the county while providing social services that would otherwise fall on the county to provide.

$10,000, Commissioner Kennedy proposed, and Chair Jimmy Hodges said, "I'm okay with it." That comment was not lost of the other two Republicans, Blust and Yates, who now appear out-numbered on that issue. Jimmy Hodges has become the unpredictable swing vote on the Commission.

What happened in the discussion yesterday is by no means final or official. It was a "penciling in" of an amount for the County Manager and his finance team to juggle in coming up with a final budget that will be voted on later this spring. So we'll see if Mr. Hodges continues to be "okay with it."

Other Issues
County Manager Deron Geoque plans a modest cost-of-living increase for county employees ("but not for county commissioners!" Perry Yates almost shouted. He didn't like the perception of a salary increase for elected commissioners).

Matt Vincent, head of the Tourism Development Authority, said he wanted the county to take over maintenance of capital improvements, like greenways and bike trails, because the fear of maintenance costs was preventing the Tea Party element (my words, not Mr. Vincent's) on the TDA from initiating grant applications for more capital improvements. Commissioner David Blust, who's always complained about maintenance costs, remained conspicuously quiet at that moment.

The Republican majority on the commission expressed love for Horn in the West and unified hostility toward the restoration of the Appalachian Theater in downtown Boone. Commissioner Kennedy was urging his fellow commissioners to give equal support to both the Horn and the theater as community-building venues for the performance arts, but Boone-hatred is still pretty much the modus operandi of county Republicans. "Not enough parking," Yates groused, and Chairman Hodges focused on "bars" downtown and "intoxicated people" as reasons the theater will never succeed. But the commission agreed to invite the people in charge of the theater restoration to a meeting soon to 'splain themselves and (presumably) beg for money.

That Was Not Our Last Calf-Roping

That was not our first rodeo. Won't be our last, either. We know the taste of arena-floor dirt. Improves your perspective and adds nutriments that are otherwise rare to the diet. You know the old saying: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

2016 won't be the same for either party. Turn-out for Democrats and the unaffiliated is bound to be much stronger, even if all the voter suppression practiced by our General Assembly and The Guv stands up in court.

Locally, progressives held their own and even improved their situation. Sheriff Hagaman buried Randy Townsend, despite an early voting site in Deep Gap generously provided by our partisan Board of Elections.

It's steady-state on the county's Board of Commissioners, two Democrats and three Republicans. But at least the Nathan Miller Era will be over come the first of December. He has no more public office to abuse the power of. Republican Commissioner David Blust will have to run again in 2016 along with Republican Perry Yates. Without Miller pulling their strings, what will they do for direction? Will they put Democrat-turned-Republican Jimmy Hodges in as their Chair?

Democrats will now dominate the Watauga County Board of Education, first time in a long time. Republican Ron Henries, who got thrown under the party bus back in May because he voted not to ban books, is now being celebrated on the local conservative blog as one of their wins on Tuesday, as though we all don't remember how he was treated months ago. Bottomline: Wataugans have only one book-banner left on the school board, and that took a good deal of "single-shotting" by the conservatives.

NC House member Jonathan Jordan lost Watauga County, and state Senator Dan Soucek came within 226 votes of losing his home county too. If voters want more backwardness and bullshit, they'll certainly get it from Jordan and Soucek. But 2016 is coming.

For those without love for the North Carolina General Assembly -- which means those who've been paying attention to the extremist agenda in Raleigh -- the brightest spots on Tuesday night were in Buncombe and in Wake counties.

Tim Moffitt, the smug Buncombe County representative who engineered the seizing of Asheville's water system without compensation to the city, was defeated by Democrat Brian Turner. Moffitt thought he might be in line to succeed Thom Tillis as Speaker of the NC House. Oops.

Another Buncombe County Republican House member, freshman Nathan Ramsey, also lost to John Ager.

But Wake County was the real stand-out for a local slaughter of Republican office-holders. Another Republican NC House member, Tom Murry, used an election-day stunt to try to fool pro-education voters. The Murry campaign paid temp workers to hand out fake endorsement cards from the NC Association of Educators. The NCAE had actually endorsed Murry’s opponent, Gale Adcock. The fake endorsement cards were exposed on local television, and Adcock went on to beat the faker.

All four incumbent Republican county commissioners in Wake County, including Jesse Helms's nephew Paul Coble, were swept out of office by four Democrats.

Perhaps most significant of all races statewide, Democratic Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges won all their races, except for that 19-candidate race for the Court of Appeals, where Republican John Tyson won because all Democrats did not unite behind one candidate.

Boone's Former ETJ: Watauga County Left Stomping the Flaming Bag of Legislative Feces

The clock is ticking down to January 1, 2015, when some 1,500 different property owners in the former Boone Extraterritorial Jurisdiction will suddenly be without the zoning protections that many of them have depended on for years.

With a 3-2 Republican (and virulently anti-zoning) majority on the County Commission, we don't feel any urgency on the parts of Nathan Miller, David Blust, and Perry Yates to reinflate the ship that Sen. Dan Soucek and Rep. Jonathan Jordan have generously sunk for the benefit of a handful of developers.

It'll be a huge job for the County Planning Board to come up with a recommendation -- something that's probably going to take more than the three months left in this quickly waning year. Which means the 1,500 property owners get thrown to the wolves on January 1st, or the County Commission enacts a moratorium on development until regs are written, debated, and enacted.

It's a fine mess that Soucek and Jordan left us.

I attended the meeting last night of the Watauga County Planning Board. They took up for the first time what to do about the former ETJ. Some of their members weren't present, but I detected mainly good will on the part of those who did bother to show up. They want to help the neighborhoods, and as a first step they're scheduling a series of community meetings to understand the problems and gather opinions on what to do.

Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking. The ideological make-up of the guys with the power to do something, anything -- the County Commission -- isn't guaranteed to support a moratorium on development while the Planning Board completes its work.

Except … except … there'll be an election before the first of the year, and new Commission members will take their seats early in December, so things could turn around suddenly. Or not. Depends on what county voters want: the cronyism and corruption of Raleigh office-holders who'll sell you out to the highest bidder, or patient regs meant to protect property values and the quality of life for all residents.

What to do to protect homeowners in the former ETJ becomes a campaign issue for County Commission candidates this fall. Do you know where they stand? Do they know where they stand?

Watauga County Government Neglecting Its Recreational Assets

Watauga County owns the Brookshire Greenway, which runs behind Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex. It cost the county pretty much nothing, because it was built with grant money. But our Watauga County Commissioners -- David Blust chief among them -- have refused any upkeep for that greenway, which is used daily by many Watauga Countians. This photograph was taken this morning. It is wholly characteristic of the entire length of the path. Very tall (and short) weeds are growing at the edge of the pavement, in some places constricting the space needed by pedestrians to pass one another.

It's a shame to allow a public asset like this walking path to become overgrown through plain-old governmental neglect. On at least one stretch of Brookshire greenway, black locust saplings have grown up quickly right on the edge of the pavement. A sickle bar at this point probably wouldn't cut them. By next year, they'll be trees, and walkers will have problems brushing past their thorns.

How many times have I heard Mr. Blust express resentment that the county might have any upkeep obligations on greenways and bike parks? That resentment of his toward spending any county money to enhance the benefit to the public of recreational walkways made it into a Watauga Democrat article last year:

"Not everyone is as enthusiastic as others about the planned trail projects. County commissioners Perry Yates and David Blust last month voted against an environmental assessment contract for the 421 underpass. Blust expressed concerns about the future costs of maintaining the trail."

This is merely Tea Party-ism elevated to public policy, the philosophy that government has no role -- or even a right, really -- to own and maintain infrastructure for the delight of the general population.

Watauga County has been in the grip of this philosophical stagnation for four years now. The voting public has an opportunity to change things in November, especially that lack of vision.  

Andrew Cox, in The Appalachian, 24 April 2014.

Shhh! Not a Word of This to Miller, Blust, and Yates!

Boone and Blowing Rock named among Top 17 small cities in NC

Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub...

...three men in a tub, and they all sailed out to sea.

The three-man Republican majority on the Watauga County Commission formed a belt line last night and whipped the dickens out of Boone Mayor Andy Ball for having the gall to ask that sales tax distribution to the four towns in the county be returned to a more equitable per capita (population) basis rather than the current ad valorem (property value) basis.

Commissioners Nathan Miller, David Blust, and Perry Yates trotted out their lists of past beefs with Boone, their grievances, their grudges going back decades in some cases, but they readily admitted that their self-righteous spite sprang mainly from the on-going feud Mr. Yates's daddy-in-law Phil Templeton has with anybody and everybody who won't let him do precisely as he wishes as a millionaire land developer.

How dare the Town of Boone let its concern for maintaining development standards get in the way of Mr. Templeton's offer to buy the old high school property for $19 million! Well, Boone dared, and the three men in Nathan Miller's tub exacted their punishment: the redistribution of sales tax revenues so that Boone is hurt to the tune of almost $2 million, while the other three towns get a windfall.

Make that "a windfall" with a kick-back provision for the county: the three other towns get to keep 40% of their new sales tax allocation while kicking back to the county a whopping 60%. A gentlemen's agreement, so to speak (and begging the pardon of actual gentlemen everywhere). Everybody is making out like bandits, except Boone.

What's not to like about that? Government by revenge. The "social contract" as vendetta.

No one disputes the fact that Boone raises over 60% of all the sales taxes collected in Watauga. After Miller/Blust/Yates meted out their punishment last year, Boone now receives back some 12% of that revenue to support its budget. Before, when the distribution was based on population, Boone received between 24% and 25%. With four towns in the county, the largest and most productive, as far as sales tax revenue goes, was receiving one-fourth of those revenues, while raising most of it. Seems fairly equitable that one-fourth of the towns would get one-fourth of the revenue.

Last night, Mayor Ball asked Commission Chair Nathan Miller if he thought it was fair that Boone raise 60% of the revenue and get 12% of it in return. You could see the ire rise in Miller. It's plenty fair, he replied with noticeable venom.

(It's still remarkable to me that a man of this temperament, with this understanding of balance in the world of justice, is now seeking to become the District Attorney for the 24th Prosecutorial District. A prosecutor ready to ride a grudge into the ground.)

Last night, and with something of a rhetorical flourish, Commissioner David Blust asked Mayor Ball if ASU students wouldn't be included in any per capita calculation, as if to suggest... what? Mr. Blust never finished that thought. We assume he was implying something nefarious -- he has a history of malice-afore-thought toward ASU students. Perhaps he was suggesting that college students in the town of Boone aren't actual, "legitimate" residents, even while they drive our streets, walk our sidewalks, drink our water, and put great strain on our infrastructure, and even while they add tremendously to the grand total of sales tax revenue that Mr. Blust willfully denies the Town of Boone.

Anne Marie Yates, Commissioner Yates's wife and Daddy Templeton's daughter and incidentally the chairwoman of the Watauga County Republican Party, was doing a victory lap out in the lobby with leaders of the other towns. Ms. Yates was unable to get her slate of family and friends elected to the Boone Town Council last fall, but obviously the next best thing is to enjoy the suffering of the powerless.

What's Going On Here?

Last night at the end of the Watauga County Commission meeting, Commissioner Billy Kennedy turned to county attorney Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") and said that a constituent had inquired whether the Town of Beech Mountain was now working in Raleigh to go around, or somehow overrule, the vote of the County Commission denying a new water intake on the Watauga River. Mr. Eggers is attorney for both the Town of Beech Mountain and the County of Watauga, and he was intimately involved in drafting the original resolution that would have granted the Town of Beech Mountain access to the Watauga River.

The reaction on the dais to Mr. Kennedy's question was akin to introducing red hot pokers to several backsides.

For his part, Mr. Eggers retreated behind the client-attorney wall of silence, and Mr. Kennedy pressed his point that this dual role of Mr. Eggers presents a problem in his eyes. Mr. Eggers commented that if the possibility of a conflict of interest arose, he would certainly inform his bosses on the County Commission and recuse himself.

Does that answer fly? Given Mr. Eggers' blatant conflict of interest in running the Watauga County Board of Elections from behind the scenes, through the instrumentality of his younger brother Luke, while also serving as legal counsel to the BOE, suggests that Mr. Eggers would not necessarily recognize a conflict of interest if he were standing knee-deep in one.

Commission Chair Nathan Miller scolded Kennedy for even asking his question, and Commissioner Perry Yates piled on, along with David Blust, all of them shocked -- shocked! -- that Kennedy would even suggest, imply, insinuate, or allude to a conflict of interest on Mr. Eggers' part.

The Republicans on the Commission looked mighty defensive.

Town of Boone v. The Tea Party

Town of Boone officials and Watauga County Commissioners met last night over the process for making Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) appointments to Boone's boards and commissions, as required by law. Jesse Wood's coverage in the High Country Press is thorough and detailed.

County Commission Chair Nathan Miller's extreme Tea Party philosophy was on full display. He does not believe in any land-use planning regulations. He made that abundantly clear.

Bottomline: It doesn't matter which ETJ residents the Town of Boone recommends for its Planning Commission and its Board of Adjustment. The three Republicans on the County Commission are going to reject those recommendations and appoint people hostile to Boone's development regulations. Always.

Perry Yates, who often doesn't seem to realize what he's revealing about himself when he speaks, said it was "discrimination" that the county might have to jump through an extra hoop (a public hearing) in order to appoint men to Boone's Board of Adjustment who disagree with the town's development ordinances. Discrimination.

Think about that for one minute. Appointees to the Board of Adjustment are sworn in as quasi-judicial officials. They serve as judges, and the law they interpret and apply is Boone's Unified Development Ordinance. In effect, Perry Yates was saying he wanted to appoint judges who not only won't uphold the law but who despise the law.

Let's call this what it is: nullification, the highly popular theory and attempted practice among Tea Party types everywhere. Nullification is the philosophical viewpoint that if you don't like a law, then by Gawd you don't have to follow it.

Nathan Miller, Perry Yates, David Blust, and the entire Templeton clan lost the recent election, in which they attempted to install nullifiers into office in Boone. What is left to them in their toolkit of nullification is their ability to screw with the law by appointing judges who don't believe in the law.

This ain't new. The current crisis of "communication" between town and county was precipitated in April 2011 when the town of Boone forwarded recommendations to the County for appointment to the Planning Commission and the Board of Adjustment. One of those recommended ETJ residents had previous experience on a planning board, a zoning board, and a board of adjustment. Another had work experience in rural and urban development. A third, a nationally noted environmentalist living in the ETJ, was explicitly rejected by Commissioner Nathan Miller because "he agrees with the town's planning ordinances."

In that famous April meeting, the County Commission (with Commissioner Jim Deal voting no) rejected the town's qualified recommendations and appointed two men who had not even applied and another man who lived in the town of Boone and not in the ETJ.

Yet it is Nathan Miller who can always work himself up into a ziggurut of wounded self-righteousness in his approach to the town of Boone. And, ironically, this is the Man Who Would Be District Attorney, if he can get the people of this judicial district to vote him into office next year.

Yeah, I want this man applying the law!

Author Isabel Allende Enters School Reading Controversy

An extraordinary letter written by author Isabel Allende to the Watauga County School Board has come to light (hattip: GH). The letter, with an accompanying article detailing the Watauga County controversy over her first novel, "House of the Spirits," was published in School Library Journal.

The SLJ article mentions the dismissive rants that Watauga County commissioners David Blust, Nathan Miller, and Perry Yates heaped on the book last Friday, calling for its censorship. With cause then, Allende wrote in her letter, "Banning of books is a common practice in police states, like Cuba or North Korea, and by religious fundamentalist groups like the Taliban, but I did not expect it in our democracy."

(Jesse Wood's coverage in the High Country Press also includes the complete text of Allende's letter.)