
Update: Green Park Inn sold in courthouse sale
Thursday evening’s auction of the historic Green Park Inn in Blowing Rock didn’t go the way its owner, Ronnie Wrenn, and the auctioneers hoped it would.
Auctioneer Mark Rogers started the bidding at $5 million for the century-old resort hotel and the 3.8 acres that it sits on. Looks like bidding is up to $1.2 Million
Click here to read more from the Watauga Democrat
Hayes Center Suspending Operations
The Board of Trustees for the Mariam and Robert Hayes Performing Arts Center announced Tuesday that it would be suspending all operations at the center immediately after the closing of the Blowing Rock Stage Company Production of the musical biography Hank Williams: Lost Highway. That production is scheduled to end Sept. 6 but could possibly have an extended run after that date.
Click here for the article from Jeff Eason
Help for Tweetsie
The Watauga County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed the movement to help buy the land on which Tweetsie operates during a public hearing held on Monday evening.
Here’s the article from Go Blue Ridge
UPDATE: Opinions divided
New Blowing Rock Fire Department Nears Completion
The new Blowing Rock Emergency Management facility is on track to open in early May, said Kent Graham, Blowing Rock Emergency Management Services director.
Currently, Amber Contracting of Mount Airy is completing the final 10 percent of the $4.2 million job, including final interior and landscaping work and corrections to the roof, Graham said.
Read more in the High Country Press
Highway 321, postponed until 2009
Completion of the widening of U.S. 321 from Lenoir to Blowing Rock likely won’t come until spring 2009, more than six months behind schedule, transportation officials said Monday.
Here’s the article from the Hickory Daily Record
Here are photos of the proposed highway
$1.5 Million for Water Projects
More than $1.5 million could be on the way to help North Carolina communities upgrade their water systems.Gov. Mike Easley has signed off on federal-state grants for projects in Marshall, Mars Hill, Tryon, Valdese, Lenoir and Blowing Rock, his office announced today.
Click here to read more from the Asheville Citizen
Fire destroys gift shop, museum at Tweetsie Railroad
Investigators spent today shoveling through ashes to determine what caused an early morning fire that destroyed the Tweetsie Railroad Museum and gift shop at Tweetsie Railroad
Click here to read more
New Parking deck in Blowing Rock
The Blowing Rock Town Council on Tuesday voted 3 to 2 to award a $1.08 million contract to Kearey Builders of Statesville to build a two-story, 62- by 200-foot parking deck in downtown Blowing Rock.
Here’s the article from High Country Press