A sure sign of spring: The Flowering Quince and...
The Echo of the Gorge is the bi-monthly newsletter of the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Community Club. The Gerton Post Office has paper copies. The ECHO may be read online at out blog site: gertonecho.blogspot.com
The Editor welcomes news items: E-mail Margaret Whitt at mwhitt@du.edu or phone 625-0264 or ace reporter Barbara Earnhardt at lualice@bellsouth.net or 625-9255. Pictures of local Gerton activities, people, or places are always welcome.
UNGCC officers: President, Margaret Whitt; Vice-President, Jim Earnhardt; Secretaries, Jean Bradley and Lana Roberts; Treasurer, Sylvia Sane; Immediate Past President, Mel Freeman. Board members: Gene Earnhardt, Syble Freeman, Claudia Freeman, Jim Sane, Jean Bradley. Programs, Barbara Earnhardt. Board meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month. Community Dinner and Program are on the third Tuesday of each month.
the Lenten Roses (Courtesy: Barbara Earnhardt)
Calendar of Events
Every Monday-Friday - Exercise by walking with your neighbors to a tape at the center. Daily at 9 a.m.
March 2, Saturday—Pot-luck picnic at noon in orchard at Hickory Nut Forest, or Jane and
John's cabin to organize for Gerton Community Garden. (Garden has room for
individual beds, plus asparagus/strawberry/herb gardens, with l00 different
fruit trees. Call Jane Lawson for more details at 712-7797.
March 10, Sunday - Daylight Savings Time begins. Set your clock FORWARD.
March 19 - 6:30 p.m. - Community Covered Dish Dinner. Program: Ken Abbott, local photographer, will bring a preview of some of his stunning collection of pictures of the “house, gardens, and farm activities” of Hickory Nut Gap Farm, just up the road from Gerton. A five-year-long project, his collection will be published in 2014. Whether you’re a photographer or not, you will be glad you came to this dinner. (With a 1987 MFA from the Yale School of Art, Mr. Abbott calls Fairview
March 23 –Gerton Community Garden
March 30 - 2 p.m. Community Easter Egg Hunt - All children, 12 and under. Community Picnic Shelter on the Greens.
March 31 - Easter Sunday
April 4 - Spring Luncheon to benefit Ministry of Hope (support for chaplains at the Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women) at Lake Lure Lodge and Spa. Tickets: $35. See Margaret Whitt for tickets and information.
April 16 - 6:30 p.m. Community Covered Dish Dinner. Program: Mary Ann Wansong will describe the Food for Fairview
April 20 - SALE ON THE TRAIL
8 a.m. - Breakfast
8 - 2 p.m. - Community Yard Sale at the Center
July 26 and 27 - Summer Play (Invite out-of-Gerton guests and save the date)
President's Note
As spring returns to the gorge, we look forward to welcoming back our part-time residents. We will host our annual Easter Egg Hunt and our annual breakfast for the Sale on the Trail event, now in its fourth year. We welcome your contributions to the community yard sale. Items may be brought to the clubhouse during the week of April 15-19.
We have an ambitious year ahead as we look forward to completing our kitchen and addinga new handicapped ramp and enlarging the restroom space. I will continue to write grants for these projects, and perhaps we will be fortunate enough to be successful.
Now here is a bit of news about our money, I think you will find interesting. In 2010, we spent $1,531 on heating oil. In 2012, we spent $202! The difference? A more responsible use of our thermostat. Our Progress Energy bills for 2010 totaled $988; in 2012 (after the installation of our windows), our Progress Energy tally was $856.
I look forward to working with you this year in all our projects, programs, and undertakings. See you at dinner!
Margaret Whitt
2013 Operating Budget
Expenses
Maintenance of Club and Property 2012 actual 2012 2013
Lawn Care $1820 $1970 $2100
Utilities 960 856 900
Heating oil 400 202 200
Gas Tank Rental 0 79 79
Sub-Total $3841 3589 $3915
Insurance $2140 2067 2100
Taxes on rental space 0 135 140
Supplies
Paper plates, napkins, utensils, dining cloths, decorations,
Calendar, etc. $600 252 300
Printing and Postage and PO rental 600 585 600
Sub-Total $1200 837 900
Building Projects $1500 1512 1300
Programs
GertonFest food/expenses 834
Easter egg hunt 26
July 4 Cookout and fireworks 200
Play 79
Thanksgiving turkey 16
Others 48
Sub-Total $750 1250 1500
Outreach $200 128 200
Rental Space 0 125 1000
Repairs/Maintenance 0 903 300
TOTAL $9631 $10,546 $11,355
REVENUES 2013
anticipated 2012 actual 2012 anticipated 2013
Dues $610 752 750
Donations
Exercise $200 347 305
Meetings $300 402 400
ECHO/unrestricted $300 860 1000
Fundraisers
GertonFest $2440 2617 2800
Summer Play $1400 1464 1500
July 4 $400 420 400
Cookbooks 0 479 300
Rent
Building $100 200 400
Store $2800 2402 2500
TOTAL $9550 10,932 11,355
High waters near the Community Greens and the Picnic Shelter--
a reminder of all the rain in early February. (courtesy: Adelaide Grindle)
New Tenant in Community Center Space
Sheila Franklin has rented the space vacated by the Hickory Creek Market at the Community Center, effective February 25.. Sheila lives in Gerton and her business, The Paper Doll, is a wallpaper and paint company. She has 30 years' experience in installing and painting. She plans to use her new space as an artist's studio. As the days get warmer, she will open on weekends and other times (to be announced) for retail sales for her jewelry--and perhaps other artists' work, as well.Let’s Take Pictures, Compete, and Create a Calendar
Gerton’s landscape is some of the
most unique on our globe--to say nothing of its extraordinary beauty. Let’s take a closer look through the
discriminating and revealing lens of our cameras. Let’s Have Fun Taking Some Pictures!!!
For
ourselves, our friends and relatives, we can capture and create a
scrapbook of our own Gerton through the production of a
Gerton Calendar for 2015, and raise funds for our community club. Our community club is encouraging amateur
photographers of all ages and ranges to contribute!
Our Proposal for Gerton
Calendar for 2015—will begin selling
September 2014.
Calling All
Photographers: Submit a group of five
photos for $5, as many times as you would like. Photos can be sent on CD that is clearly
labeled with:
1. photographer’s name
2. title and/or description (this should
include a description identifying where in Gerton the photo was taken) of each picture
3. contact phone number, and an email address
or mailing address
4. check
made out to the Upper
Hickory Nut Gorge Community Club. This check should cover the charge of $5.00 for each five photos
submitted.
CDs can be mailed to Shirley Boone, P. O. Box 188 , Gerton ,
NC 28735
Timeline:
Taking photos: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall 2013 and Winter 2014. Deadline for submissions: March 31, 2014.
Production
of Calendar and Photo Selections: April,
May, June s2014 Judges and Prizes to be announced in the next ECHO.
Sale of Calendar begins
at GertonFest VI
with Winning Photographers Announced July 4, 2014
Scholarship for High School Senior Entering College
It is an honor for WNC Communities to offer The Journey Scholarship Program to youth in our communities preparing to enter college. Last year, $8,000 in scholarship funds was awarded to eight deserving high school seniors continuing their education.
The Journey Scholarship Application has been emailed to the high school guidance counselors of the high schools that are in or closest to your community. The criteria for The Journey Scholarship Application are listed on page two and the deadline to get the completed application postmarked and into the WNC Communities’ office is March 28, 2013. Please familiarize yourself with the application particularly noting the “Community Confirmation” section on the final page. This is where we need a community officer to sign the application to help confirm the high school senior applying for The Journey Scholarship actually lives in, participates in, or will be supported by your community.
If you have any questions or would like for The Journey Scholarship Application to be emailed to a senior high school student in your community, call 828-252-4783 or email lindalamp@wnccommunities.org
Those Who Walked in 2012
We had 16 walkers in 2011, and our numbers shot to 18 walkers in 2012. Each weekday morning from 9-10, the group meets to "walk" with Leslie Sansonne, who appears regularly on a DVD. We may have only one to two walkers, but the group grows in the summer when our part-time residents return to Gerton. Champion walker this year was Sylvia Sane, who logged 576 miles! In 2011, the total miles logged from 16 people was 3,273. In 2012, 18 people walked 3,384.Here are the totals for those who participated in 2012 (in alphabetical order):
- Jan Beck 6 miles
- Jean Bradley 356 miles
- Barbara Earnhardt 324 miles
- Toni Eastman 4 miles
- Jean Carson 78 miles
- Joan Erskine 229 miles
- Syble Freeman 60 miles
- Karen Hudson-Brown 245 miles
- Sandi Jacubowski 19 miles
- Meg Mumpower 242 miles
- Susan Murray 159 miles
- Roberta Pope 114 miles
- Gail Ozmina 127 miles
- Lana Roberts 162 miles
- Sylvia Sane 576 miles
- Lois Simpson 133 miles
- Ann Weiss 145 miles
- Margaret Whitt 405 miles
Get Ready, Get Set, Go to SALE
Box up your good old stuff in order—washed and waxed, if need be—for the Yard Sale at the Community Center Saturday, April 20. A pancake breakfast will be served, a homemade bake sale too—and items to be sold spread out on tables, proceeds to go to the Community Center coffers.
Plan, too, to drive up and down the Gorge for the Sale up and down same—at various businesses and restaurants and places between Gerton and Lake Lure, and maybe a little beyond. More details will be forthcoming
(One Detail Forthcoming: Our Homebaked cakes and cookies and breads usually bring in about $300 to the total proceeds for our various Community Center projects. Want to beat the phoned call to whip up something exceedingly delicious for the bake sale? Call Barbara Earnhardt at 625-9255, or leave a message, telling what you’ll be glad to …whip up for this excellent cause!)
Ice on Little Bearwallow Mountain in mid-February (courtesy: Ben French)
Gerton Fire and Rescue
Notes from Chief Jay Alley’s Desk
March 2013
In 2012, Gerton Fire Department responded to 93 calls for service. We responded to 25 medical calls, 9 motor vehicle crashes, 2 structure fires, 4 brush fires, 4 power lines down, 2 tree down, 16 public service, 1 search mission, 7 false alarms, and 29 mutual aid calls to neighboring fire departments for structure fires. It was a typical year as far as responses. We gained 1 new firefighter, Jonathan Jenkins. Below, I am repeating what I wrote in last month’s column because I think it is too important not to repeat.
I wanted to take a few minutes to remind everyone to please clean out your chimneys and flues. It is important to keep these clean to ensure you do not have a chimney fire. We recommend you clean out your flue every season and then have it inspected at least once during the burning season. We also recommend that you have a working carbon monoxide detector in your home. Please check your smoke detectors and make sure they are working. If they are not or it has been a while since you changed the batteries, contact us and we will be glad to come up and replace the battery and/or replace the detector. We offer to anyone a free home safety check. Please contact us to schedule a time. These tips may help to prevent us coming to see you by “accident.”
Lastly I wanted to let everyone know of a change in the way we will be performing CPR if we respond and find someone in cardiac arrest. The newest standards released by the American Heart Association are recommending that once CPR is started that the patient is not moved until after twenty minutes of CPR has been performed. It has been shown that good effective CPR is the single most important thing we can do to improve a patient’s chance of survival. Of course the paramedics will still come and administer medications and perform advanced skills, but we will be staying in place focusing on good quality CPR for the first twenty minutes. In the past, we would typically come in and quickly load the patient and do CPR while en route to the hospital. This has been tried in several different states and even in some counties in North Carolina. The survival rate jumped from >3 percent to over 40 percent. This is a strategy that has been adopted in Henderson County. We just wanted you to be aware of why we are not moving toward the hospital like we used to.
Thanks for all of your support. We are excited to see what 2013 has for us. As always, we are here to serve you. If we can help you in any way, please do not be afraid to contact us. The station number is 625-2779. Also my cell number is 674-0066. It is on 24/7. I may not answer if I am in a meeting, but leave a message and I will call you back. We welcome your comments and feedback. As always we still find funding to be our number one handicap. We would welcome any donations you can afford. Every dollar you spend is spent to make your community safer. I will see you somewhere during 2013. Be safe! Next time we will talk about some fire safety tips.
Neighborhood News
Lucas and Chelsea West are excited to announce the birth of their baby daughter, AnnaSophia Kay West. AnnaSophia arrived on January 6, 2013 at 10:15 PM, weighing 8 lbs. 7 oz. and was 22 in. long. Mama, daddy, and baby are doing great. Grandma Lorri, Aunt Cassidy, and Great-Grandma Joan traveled to northern
From Bob and Diane Field: On January 9, 2013, Jim Field Sr., brother of Toni Barkett and Bob Field, Jr., went to meet the Lord. Jim had been battling cancer for over two years. He is now in a better place without pain and is with his Mom and Dad and his son Jim Jr. He will be missed by all his family and friends but will live on in their memory. RIP Jim - we love you.
The Be arwallow Cemetery U.S. Bearw allow Baptist Church
(Courtesy: Jonathan Jenkins)
The community celebrated with Meris Jenkins on Saturday, February 16, at 2 p.m. on the occasion of her and Jonathan's soon-to-be-among-us new son. The center was decorated in blue and white and both Meris's and Jonathan's moms and her grandmother were all present. Roberta Pope prepared the "diaper cake," this time in the shape of an elephant. And who doesn't like to look upon baby presents for new babies! A good time was had by all. Above, McKenzie helps her mom open some gifts.
Becca Hathaway holds McKenzie Jenkins and her son John Solomon at mom Meris's recent baby shower.
(courtesy: Jean Bradley)
Medina’s Bistro is a terrific little Chimney Rock restaurant which has been open for four years, but you might have overlooked it—especially summers when the tourist parades slow everything down. The Bistro menu is inviting—breakfast, lunch and supper, closed Tuesdays (remember), and special dinner entrees Fridays and Saturdays. We had a delicious lump crab sandwich recently, and a fresh green salad. The owners—John and Megan—prepare and serve the food. Megan drops off their little boy at Barbie Sinclair’s Day Care. She says they love the Gorge, and have bought a house, with plans to stay.
Rosemary and Bill Watkins have moved from their Jacksonville, Florida, home to Rockingham, North Carolina
Bird Spotting should be a national past-time, and certainly is a local one. Here in Gerton, blue birds were busy on home tours Christmas Day, a cocky-looking robin was seen February l (probably overwintering), 18 turkeys—huge-looking and bronze-feathered—strut to find neighbors’ corn and bread spread out for breakfast and supper. And five ducks mind not the inclement weather, nor pay any attention to the Little Blue Heron who visits now and then, startled enough by a passing car to leave pond-edge fishing behind until the next time.
Ruth McNair and her five children have lived in their Chestnut Hill house for the past eight years. Just hired as a physical therapist at the V.A. Hospital in Swannanoa, Ruth feels she needs to live closer to Asheville with her two school-aged children, Ben and Lydia
NEED HELP? Local resident Richard
Campbell is free to help in yard (l00s of branches have fallen in our yards this
winter!), or assess a handyman job you might need doing. He’ll
judge whether the job requires more expertise, but otherwise will be glad to
work for you: call
828-595-1429
A Community Garden
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