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'American Experience' profiles George Bond's Sealab role

Henderson County News

Contractor in Buncombe County scandal pleads guilty

Joseph F. Wiseman Jr., a contractor whose dealings with Buncombe County led to the indictment of three top county officials, pleaded guilty on Thursday to a conspiracy charge for his role in a bribery scheme. Wiseman, 58, of Roswell, Georgia, was the agent and contractor on behalf of three businesses that collectively obtained more than $15 million in contracts with Buncombe County for consulting and engineering services from the mid 1980s through 2017, U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray said. John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division; Director Robert Schurmeier of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI); and Matthew D. Line, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, Charlotte Field Office (IRS-CI), join Murray in making today’s announcement. Court records show that from at least 2014 through June 30, 2018, Wiseman engaged in a bribery scheme involving three top Buncombe County Officials: former County Manager Wanda Skillington Greene; former Director of the Department of Planning and Development Jon Eugene Creighton; and former Director of the Department of Social Services, Assistant County Manager, and later Buncombe County Manager, Amanda Stone (collectively, “County Officials”).According to court documents, the plea agreement, and statements made in court, Greene, Creighton, and Stone engaged in the bribery scheme with Wiseman and used their official positions to enrich and benefit themselves by soliciting and accepting gifts, payments, and other things of value from Wiseman, in exchange for awarding Wiseman and the companies he represented with lucrative county contracts and projects. Court records show that Wiseman understood and agreed that providing the trips, gifts, and other things of value to the three County Officials was a necessary condition for his companies to continue to obtain contracts with the County.According to court records, prior to 2014, Greene, Creighton, and Stone went on trips that were connected in some way with legitimate county business, but during which Wiseman provided things of value such as meals, wine, tickets to sporting events, and other excursions. By 2014, the County Officials solicited and accepted valuable gifts from Wiseman that were entirely unrelated to any legitimate County business. For example, Wiseman paid for pleasure trips to various locations within the United States and abroad, including to Key West, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Napa Valley, San Diego, Vienna, Budapest, Cartagena, and Vancouver, among others. In addition to lodging and airfare, during those trips Wiseman also paid for sightseeing excursions, spa sessions, and gift shop purchases, such as cases of wine from the Napa Valley vineyards that the County Officials visited. To pay for the trips and other incidentals, Wiseman either provided the County Officials with his credit card number, or, as in Creighton’s case, the credit card itself.As a result of receiving the above-cited things of value, Greene and Creighton awarded on behalf of Buncombe County multiple contracts worth over $2 million to Wiseman’s company, Environmental Infrastructure Consulting, LLC (EIC). According to the filed factual basis statement to which Wiseman agreed during the entry of his guilty plea, Wiseman contends that the expenses he incurred by providing these trips, gifts, and other things of value to the County Officials came out of what otherwise would have been part of the his own profit, rather than from any type of “padding” or inflating of the contract amounts. However, Wiseman did agree that he provided the valuable gifts for the purpose of influencing Greene, Creighton, and Stone’s decision to award the contracts, and, in doing so, Wiseman conspired with the County Officials to deprive the Government and the citizens of Buncombe County of their right to the honest services of those employees.Wiseman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carleton Metcalf. The maximum penalty for the charge is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. A sentencing date has not been set.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Drug squad seizes half pound of meth

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office Drug Enforcement Team and Crime Suppression Unit seized a half pound of methamphetamine after a traffic stop on U.S. Highway 25 South in the Tuxedo community on Wednesday, the sheriff's office said.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Don't miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning (203)

You won't want to miss this week’s Hendersonville Lightning.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Where is Mary's Burritos going?

Mary’s Burritos, the popular Mexican restaurant, has closed its doors at 1971 Asheville Highway and is moving six blocks north to the Town Center, at 2560 Asheville Highway just north of Hunter Automotive. The new digs are more spacious, with lots of light and far more parking than the current location. Mountain Land and Development, a Candler-based contractor, took out a building permit for a $54,000 remodel of the 2,125-square-foot space for restaurant use. “We’re hoping for early March (for an opening) but we’re not sure,” said the contractor, Troy Hall.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

School system sets makeup days

In response to canceled school because of black ice on Jan. 23 and the threat of snow on Jan. 29, Henderson County schools administrators have designated Feb. 15 and 18 as full student days on all calendars, with a few other minor changes to the Flex calendar. Prior to this change, Feb. 15 had been an early dismissal day (at noon) on the Traditional, Flex, and Early College calendars; Feb. 18 had been an annual leave day with no school for students on the Traditional and Early College calendars. Additional changes to the Flex calendar include making April 15 a “no day” instead of an annual leave day for staff. No one will be in school during that time – just like a regularly scheduled Spring Break – but the designation of a “no day” helps prevent staff from having to use annual leave time. June 5 will now be a full day for Flex students, rather than a half day dismissing at noon, and June 6 has been newly designated as a half day instead of a required teacher workday for Flex teachers. June 11 is now a required teacher workday, rather than an optional teacher workday for Flex teachers; June 12 is now an optional teacher workday. No additional calendar changes to the Traditional or Early College calendars have been necessary to satisfy the state’s requirement of instructional hours. Graduation dates for high schools remain unchanged since the December 2018 calendar revision; Traditional students will graduate on June 14, and Early College students will graduate May 31.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

NCDOT awards contract for landslide repair

Transportation officials recently awarded a contract to repair the landslide on U.S. 74A in Gerton.   Read Story »

Mills River News

In a first, Sierra Nevada buys a brewery

Sufferfest Beer Company of San Francisco will join Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. of Chico, California, and Mills River, the breweries announced on Monday. Sierra Nevada will acquire 100 percent of Sufferfest, which is the company’s first-ever acquisition. The breweries stated shared values, commitment to innovation, and common goals as the root of the partnership. “While still in its infancy, Sufferfest is at the front of the wave of ‘functional’ alcoholic beverages,” said Sierra Nevada President and CEO Jeff White. “By joining with Sierra Nevada, Sufferfest will be better positioned to grow and continue to lead the way in a rapidly growing and highly competitive space.” Sufferfest, which launched in 2016, is beloved by athletes for its gluten-removed line of beers like its 95-calorie Kolsch brewed with bee pollen and its FKT (Fastest Known Time) Pale Ale brewed with salt and black currant. “The complementary nature of our offerings and their position at the cusp of this emerging category are not the only reasons Sufferfest made sense,” said White. “From the moment we met, it was clear that our two companies are deeply aligned in our values and our commitment to do the right thing.” Sufferfest is a Certified B Corporation and a values-driven company. Founder and CEO Caitlin Landesberg, a long-distance trail runner, started the company with a vision to create the perfect post-sweat beer for herself and fellow sufferers. “I’ve always craved a beer after a race, but when I couldn’t find a beer that agreed with my dietary and performance needs, it left a genuine void in the post-race social experience,” explained Landesberg. “The finish line is where we get to celebrate the ail, anguish and suffering we’ve all been through together. I so wanted to continue to be part of this occasion, but didn’t want to keep compromising on taste or ingredients.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Housing starts surged by 40 percent in 2018

Reflecting a booming construction economy, new construction surged by 27 percent while remodeling work spiked by 62.5 percent in 2018, according to values reported to the Henderson County Inspections Department.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Mourners remember Ron Metzger as 'the ultimate giver'

Mourners filled the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church on Saturday to celebrate the life of Ronald C. “Ron” Metzger, a high school dropout who became a social worker and mental health administrator, a fulltime repairer of hurting humans, a "world-class" maker of cocktails and cookies and the “ultimate giver.”Metzger died on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at Carolina Village from complications from Alzheimer’s at age 79.Born in Sabetha, Kansas, he was one 10 children of Bertha and Philip Metzger. After dropping out of high school, he got a job as an apprentice baker, arriving at 1 a.m. to knead the dough, fire up the oven and bake bread, then setting out to deliver the bread, the Rev. Mark Ralls said. Metzer volunteered for the U.S. Army as a conscientious objector, assuming he’d be ordered to permanent K.P. “After all, he had lots of practice,” Ralls said. Instead, the Army made him a medic and assigned him to a psychiatric ward, “caring for soldiers struggling with mental illness.” One day, walking the down a street, he spotted a sign about getting a G.E.D. “And he would say years later it was that moment that changed his life,” Ralls said “He vowed to become a social worker.”After his discharge from the Army, he enrolled at Kansas State, where he met and fell in love with Sherri. When he left for graduate school at the University of Kansas, Ron and Sherri were “apart but never separate. Ron and Sherri wrote each other almost every day." Although they could only afford one long distance call a week that was enough. "All those letters and that phone call were enough to keep the fires burning,” Ralls said. Sherri saved Ron’s letters, sealing the more amorous of them in a plastic bag labeled “Open at your own risk.”Early in their courtship, Ron gave Sherri three roses. “One for him, one for her and one for their spirit together,” the minister said. “He continued the tradition throughout their long and happy marriage. Three roses for every anniversary.” Then came their daughter and the three roses represented mom, dad and Emily. When Ron and Sherri moved to Hendersonville in 1974, he started his career as a mental health counselor and later administrator. Over time the small mental health clinic “had grown to 250 employees in a building that bears his name,” Ralls said. “And all through those years of service Ron demonstrated again and again that the greatest gift any of us can give is to give ourselves.”In the early days, with space in short supply, “Ron the director of the program set up his office in the hallway,” a hanging cloth the only means of privacy. Although subordinates protested, “Ron insisted it was more important for our clients to have privacy and dignity.” Besides his degrees from Kansas State and Kansas, Metzger completed post-graduate work at UNC at Chapel Hill and at the National Institute of Mental Health. After he retired from Trend in 1997, he joined Sherri in real estate sales at Beverly Hanks & Associates. He was a member of the Rotary Club for 40 years and served on the board of the Henderson County Chamber of Commerce among other local boards.His daughter, Emily Freeman, remembered when her dad let her stand on his feet when they danced, when he opened the blinds every morning to wake her up, when he made breakfast every day for her and Sherri “and made sure we would all get our day started right as a family,” how he would “always make Mom and me feel like we were the center of his world.” Besides Sherri and Emily, he is survived by his son-in-law, Mark Freeman, and granddaughter, Kinley.Near the end of his career at Trend, Metzger was asked to sum up his philosophy.“It is to have and to give and to share with others,” he told the gathering.“This is not only how he lived,” the Rev. Ralls said, “this is also how he died.” Near the end of his days, as Sherri was leaving his room, Ron “absolutely insisted she take a small figurine on the table as a gift from him,” a giraffe. “Giraffes, you may know, are a symbol of peace. Perhaps Ron knew that in the weeks and months to come Sherri and all the family would need this gift,” Ralls said. “He said ‘I want you to have it, because when I go to sleep tonight I’m not getting out of this bed.’”He was right. That night he fell and never recovered from the fall. He never got out of that bed.“And yet who among us would be surprised to learn,” Ralls said, “that Ron Metzger’s final act was the giving of a gift.” * * * * * The family thanked the staff of Carolina Village and particularly thanked Dr. Peggy Noel of Memory Care, who “will forever remain in our hearts for her tireless compassion.” The family asked that memorial donations be directed to MemoryCare.org through the Community Foundation of Henderson County.       Read Story »

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