Governor Pat McCrory Visit to Dillsboro, NC

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory was in western North Carolina yesterday and spent the early part of the day in Jackson County. One of his stops was to meet with local leaders to discuss items of importance to them and to share his vision of the future of the state and part that the western counties in that future.

I recorded video of the discussion before the meal was served, then I had to leave in order to be at the ribbon cutting for a Dialysis Center in Macon County. I have posted video and few of the photos I took of the Governor's visit here.

MEDIA ROLL CALL 
(clicking on the links below will take you to the stories about this event that are posted by these organizations)

There were more reporters at this thing than I could shake a stick at.
The ones I were aware of are listed below:

Macon Media (me)
The Franklin Press
The Sylva Herald
WRGC-AM
Crossroads Chronicle (Cashiers, NC)
The Asheville Citizen-Times
WLOS-TV

TECHNICAL NOTE

I've added new functionality to the photos I've embedded. If you place your cursor over the photos, you will see a dialogue box with more information and if you click on the photos, you should see them in a light box and have the ability to scroll through all the photos in the blogpost.

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The Dillsboro Dam is Gone

I visited the site of the former Dillsboro Dam yesterday and took photos and video. There was a constantly changing crowd of onlookers filtering in and out as people observed in silence the change to the river and the construction debris scattered for hundreds of feet in the river and along it's banks.


I've got a busy couple of days ahead, and will be posting more video/photos on Monday or Tuesday when I can find the time.

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Dillsboro Dam starts to come down

Video Courtesy The Sylva Herald



Work began at 9 a.m. Wednesday (Feb. 3) as a hoe-ram, an attachment on the end of a trackhoe arm that works like a large-size jackhammer, began notching the north (powerhouse) side of the 12-foot-high, 216-foot-wide dam.


While the dam is removed – only by mechanical means – water samples will be taken above and below the dam, and Duke will be allowed to work only when the sediment level is acceptable, according to Fred Alexander, Duke’s district manager for government and community relations. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will monitor dam demolition, which Alexander said is expected to be completed by March 31. Duke will lower the reservoir level through a series of notches in the dam that will draw down the pond about 3 feet at a time.

Source: The Sylva Herald (visit the blog to see the rest of the story)

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Duke Power Wins Fight to Demolish Dillsboro Dam Liberals Rejoice

**update**

02/03/2010 The Dillsboro dam starts to come down.

It seems weird to see Liberals on the same side as Duke Power, but there you have it.

The plans to provide an economically attractive park for Dillsboro, NC have been thwarted in favor of providing a few lefty Whitewater kayakers some thrills as they pass by Dillsboro, headed south.

Source: Sylva Herald Blog

Related: PDF of Ruling

Commentary

I guess that means I'll have to get out to Dillsboro soon to do some video recording of the Dillsboro Dam for archival purposes so I can remember the historical landmark and share it with future generations.

The Sylva Herald has some footage of preparations to begin the dam removal process:

And I'll leave you with a brief video by a gloating Lefty from September:

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Freeway Jim Visits Western North Carolina

I have been following this guy's videos for a while, and have wondered if he wouold ever pass through this area, and this past weekend, he did!

There are currently three videos of his journey through our fair area uploaded, and here they are...

This first video takes us from the intersection of Highways 441 and 64 just south of Franklin, just missing catching my truck parked along the highway at the Whistlestop Mall, where I based my 4th of July activities from on that day [1] [2] [3] and it continues on to join the Smoky Mountain Expressway just north of Dillsboro.

This second video travels from where we left off in the first video and takes us to Interstate 40 and stops as Freeway Jim headed toward Asheville. Too bad for Jim...the Road to Knoxville is a better scenic route.

In the third video, he wisely skips Asheville and starts out from I-240 headed west near Exit 55 and takes us just past Exit 44.

His next video will be the Pigeon River Gorge, and I look forward to adding that video here...I needed not fret earlier. Silly me for doubting the taste of Freeway Jim!!!

You can keep up with the travels of Freeway Jim via his You Tube Channel.

Happy and Safe Travels!!!

Related Videos:

The Speed of Sound: From Savannah to Brendletown

A Ride Across Cowee Mountain

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Orange Sun Rise

I pulled over and got this shot despite the protests from the riders that we were already late...

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More photos of the Luminaries and Lights in Dillsboro

I hope no one noticed I misspelled "luminaries" last night. Ooops!

Anyhow, the luminaries is based on the Scandinavian custom of lighting the way for the Christ Child during the Christmas Season, and it has been part of the Dillsboro Christmas Season for over a decade now.

I took 337 photos and videos last night, and whittled down my photos to 82 that I wanted to share, and then found out that photobucket limits the number of photos in a slide show, so I will be putting them on You Tube sometime Monday morning after I get to the office.

So, for now, here is what I could get uploaded while I was at the library this afternoon:

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Dillsboro Luminaires Tonight

I am at the lighting of the Luminaires tonight in Dillsboro, and here are some early pix and a video of the train leaving on it's way to Bryson City. It should be back by 6 pmish.




Scenes from Dillsboro tonight, the video is unedited, and I'll have an edited version up by Monday.


And this is where I am uploading from!

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