By Scott Nicholson
George Gilleland is president of the High Country Home Builders Association and owner of The Hardwood Company in Boone, selling wood products and other building materials. He said while the construction market has cooled a little, it’s still far from doom and gloom.
“I think we’re doing better than the national average,” Gilleland said. “People are still buying high-end second homes. Our average home prices are still up there.”
Written by John Boyle
The lingering drought in much of North Carolina has resulted in the U.S. Department of Agriculture declaring 59 counties, including nearly all of Western North Carolina, disaster areas.
Advertisement
That means local farmers who can prove significant crop losses may be eligible for low-interest loans or other payments. This is the second year in a row that drought has severely impacted crops, with corn and eastern tobacco crops taking the worst hits this year.
If you think the drought is no longer an issue, just ask a local farmer.
Click here to read the article from the Asheville Citizen Times
Story by Kathleen McFadden
Researchers at Colorado State University released an economic study this week stating that the creation of the proposed Grandfather National Scenic Area (GNSA) would attract an estimated 1.5 million visitors a year, result in the creation of 724 new jobs and generate an additional $38.4 million in annual revenue for Avery, Caldwell and Watauga counties.
The proposed scenic area would encompass 25,500 acres of the 510,119-acre Pisgah National Forest along the Blue Ridge Parkway from Grandfather Mountain to Blowing Rock and would apply scenic protections only to public lands currently managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
Grandfather Mountain President Crae Morton announced this week that based on a recent survey by Doug Suttles of Suttles Surveying in Marion, N.C., Grandfather Mountain will list the elevation of its summit as 5,946 feet.
This number is 18 feet lower than the elevation of 5,964 feet that Grandfather Mountain has been using in its promotional materials since opening as a scenic travel attraction in 1952. The higher number originally came from North Carolina Geologic and Economic Survey Bulletin No. 27 entitled “Altitudes in North Carolina” published in 1917.
Story by Kathleen McFadden
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
So cautioned Craig Lewis of the Lawrence Group at the closing presentation of the Boone 2030 planning charrette last week.
What Lewis meant is that the collective vision of what Boone can become won’t be accomplished in one fell swoop or even in the next several years. The vision is a long-term one, looking ahead two decades from right now, and the only way to reach it is in incremental steps.
Those incremental steps are the “good” that Lewis referred to, with the “perfect” being the ideal vision.
Story by David Brewer
Sheri Baker, owner of Dragonfly Theater & Pub, quit her job 2.5 years ago to focus her work and attention on Boone’s new movie theater and pub. The Dragonfly Theater and Pub is absolutely the only venue in the High Country that has, in four months, hosted major motion pictures, independent movies, live concerts, church meetings, fundraisers, multimedia events, political debate viewing parties, Monday Night Football and a beer tasting. To say that the Dragonfly is versatile would be a bit of an understatement.
Click here to read the story from High Country Press
Click here to visit the Dragonfly website
ps. EDITOR- I recently held my sons 5th birthday party at Dragonfly and it was great! They let us bring in our DVD and served all the children lunch and popcorn. Best of all, the cost was very reasonable.
We feel a great deal of gratitude for the way our site has been embraced. Please forgive the recent lapse in coverage. We look forward to making good on our promise to be your best source for real estate news in the North Carolina mountains. Stay tuned for much more news on the dirt.blog.
We want to hear from you!
Please send us an email with anything you would like to see or read about on the dirt.blog, your ideas are an incredible contribution.
Stoneman Slept Here; Author Takes Readers Along the Unions Needless ... Boone Mountain Times With Boone neutralized, Stoneman decided to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains and move to Wilkesboro, about 50 miles away, thus moving out of the High Country. ... |
Coming Soon: High Speed Internet Connections For Skyline Members Boone Mountain Times That award will help provide fiber to the premises access to Ashe and Alleghany counties as well as Shady Valley, Tenn. Skyline Chief Executive Officer ... |
Sweet Treats to Flow from Waterfall Farm Boone Mountain Times While North Carolina isn't the first place you would think of for syrup production, the High Country has something very special that makes the collection of ... |
Notes of Interest Boone Mountain Times The Ashe County Arts Council will sponsor Art on the Mountain on Sept. 25. We invite artists to participate in this sale and show. Join other High Country ... |
Employers are more optimistic Wilkes Journal Patriot Over 22 percent of business owners in Wilkes, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell, Mitchell, Watauga and Yancey counties are expecting to hire new workers in ... |
Find more businesses on Boone Mountain Times For more information on the High Country Beer Fest, or to purchase tickets online, visit www.hcbeerfest.com. Carolina Breweries include Boone Brewing Co., ... |
The Kudzu Cometh Boone Mountain Times Roess contacted Meghan Baker, an agent for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension in Watauga County, to find out if kudzu had previously been a problem in ... |
High Country Unemploment Dips Slightly Go Blue Ridge (blog) Watauga's rate dropped two-tenths of a percent to 7.4%, while Avery and Ashe figures showed drops of one-tenth of a percent. Ashe unemployment dropped to ... |
On the Same Page Announces Authors and Events for Fall Literary Festival in ... PR Newswire (press release) Ashe County is located in the High Country of northwestern North Carolina and West Jefferson is its largest town. These websites provide information, ... |
 Appalachian State University | Appalachian's “BIG Sale” draws big crowds Appalachian State University Since then recipients have included Watauga 4-H, Legal Aid of North Carolina, High Country Amigos and Hospice. In later years, funding from the sale ... |
Please choose a county from the map above for township information and county links.
Find more photos like this on the high country dirt.network
© Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 (MCN: W6E0B-244E3-14308) The McGinn Company, High Country Dirt, if you wish to contact or submit stories to High Country Dirt, please click here.
If you are interested in advertising, click here
