Asheville Cabin Rental Blog

ASHEVILLE, NC – City trucks and crews began clearing roads as soon as the first snow began to fall this morning. Twenty three pieces of equipment are on the road plowing and spreading sand and salt.

Heavy snowfall is making road conditions dangerous.  The National Weather Service advises only traveling in cases of emergency.  When travel is necessary, warm coats, clothes, hats, gloves and boots should be worn.  Other items to take when travelling include a mobile phone, extra food, water and blankets.

The National Weather Service has also advised downed trees may be possible due to heavy snowfall.  To report a fallen tree in a street or right-of-way, call 9-1-1.

To report power outages, call Progress Energy at (800) 419-6356. For more information about what to do if you lose power, visit http://progress-energy.com/aboutenergy/stormcentral/outage/index.asp.

Updates about weather conditions and city services may be found at www.ashevillenc.gov and www.facebook.com/cityofasheville and www.twitter.com/cityofasheville.

ASHEVILLE, NC – The city of Asheville has released a revised leaf collection schedule due to the recent winter weather. Please see the schedule below with the revised dates:

BAGGED LEAF COLLECTION SCHEDULE

LOOSE LEAF VACUUM COLLECTION SCHEDULE

Fresh leaves can be delivered to your home or business at no cost.  Call 251-1122 for information on applying to receive loose leaves.  For more information on youar waste collection please call 251-1122 or visit the website at www.ashevillenc.gov/sanitation.

ASHEVILLE, NC – Pack Memorial Library will have a rededication ceremony on Tuesday January 18 at 2 p.m. celebrating the completion of a four million dollar renovation project started in the fall of 2009. Light refreshments will be provided and tours of the renovated facility will be available. Asheville novelist Elizabeth Kostova, author of The Historian and The Swan Thieves, will make remarks.

This rededication ceremony comes at the conclusion of the first major renovation the library has had since opening in 1978. The renovation brought the thirty-three year old building up to date by constructing a small addition on the north side, replacing all heating and air-conditioning systems and incorporating former storage space into the public areas of the building. New space for the North Carolina collection has been created, the children’s room has nearly doubled in size and the main floor is newly reconfigured to provide more space for seating and technology. All of the electrical and lighting systems were replaced.

The rededication ceremony is free and the public is invited.

For more information call 250-4700 or visit buncombecounty.org/library.

If the Asheville City Schools are closed on January 18th, the snow date for the rededication ceremony will be February 1 at 2 p.m.

ASHEVILLE, NC – It’s a weekend of a thousand laughs as John Boy and Billy host two nights of laugh out loud comedy during the 23rd Annual Comedy Classic on March 11 and 12 at The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa.   Don’t miss the chance to see headline act Jon Reep take the stage at 8 p.m. on Friday March 11.  Reep is a stand-up comedian and actor, known as the “That thing got a Hemi?” guy in Dodge commercials, and more recently as the winner of the fifth season of Last Comic Standing on NBC. Tickets for the Friday night show are $45.

On Saturday March 12, Tommy Johnagin and Reno Collier will take the stage. Johnagin’s television credits include Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham, CMT Comedy Stage and The Late Show with David Letterman. Collier gained celebrity as the opening act for Larry the Cable Guy and with his own Comedy Central Presents special. Collier was also featured on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Next Generation. Tickets for Saturday are $50.

Reep, Johnagin and Collier will be joined by popular syndicated radio hosts John Boy and Billy, as well as other comedians and musicians for a weekend of non-stop fun.

For more information on Comedy Classic 2011, please contact The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa at 800.438.0050 or 828.252.2711; visit www.groveparkinn.com, or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ewgrove and Facebook at www.facebook.com/groveparkinn.

ASHEVILLE, NC – A-B Tech will offer a new schedule of four-week classes starting with the spring semester that allows students to be full time while taking only one class a month.

“The average age of our students is 28,” A-B Tech President Hank Dunn said. “Many of them are working or caring for children in addition to going to school, so it’s not unusual for life to happen sometime during a semester. Their work hours change or their child gets sick, and before they know it, they’ve missed so many classes, they wind up dropping out with no credits to show for that entire semester.

“These new four-week classes mean students don’t have to take more than one class at a time ever again, and they don’t have to make it through a full 16-week semester before they earn any credits.”

The new format offers students an opportunity to immerse themselves in a single subject for four weeks. Each class contains the same content as a 16-week class and provides the same amount of credit.  Financial aid is available for eligible students who enroll at least half time, even if just taking one class at a time. A student can receive full financial aid if registered for 12 credits in the new format.

“Four-week classes will give students flexibility to fit their lifestyle,” said Sam Dosumu, Vice President of Instruction at A-B Tech. “A typical semester is 16 weeks long. That’s four, four-week terms. If a student takes a single, three-credit-hour course for each of those four-week terms, he or she will have 12 hours of credit by the end of the semester, enough to meet the requirement for full-time status.”

Four-week courses allow part-time students to choose the weeks they want to attend class during a semester and take a break in between.

“Four-week terms are perfect for working adults, single parents or anyone who’s pressed for time or having difficulty juggling multiple classes,” Dosumu said. “They’re also ideal for university-bound students because of the variety of transfer courses available.”

The scheduling allows students to concentrate on assignments, projects and tests without other classes competing for their time. “Research shows that students who focus on one class at a time retain more knowledge and tend to stay in college to accomplish their educational goal,” Dosumu said.

A-B Tech offers more than 60 programs of study and several scheduling options including nights, weekends, online and four- and eight-week courses. Four-week terms are scheduled Jan. 10-Feb. 7, Feb. 8-March 7, March 8-April 5, and April 6-May 10.  Registration is under way. For more information, visit abtech.edu or call 254-1921, ext. 144, 145 or 7520.

ASHEVILLE, NC – The Cultural Arts Division of City of Asheville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department is seeking artist instructors, demonstrators, and performers for cultural arts programming throughout Asheville.

Artists are invited to submit portfolios of their current work along with a resume, letter of interest, and references. Artists may submit as individuals or as teams.

The application deadline is Monday, February 28, 2011.  All application materials must be submitted online through CaFÉ™ at  www.callforentry.org.  There are no fees for artists to apply or to use the CaFÉ™ online application system.

The Cultural Arts Division works with instructors, demonstrators and performers to provide hands-on art classes, demonstrations or performances to children, teens, adults, and seniors throughout the community.

Art forms may include, but art not limited to, all two-dimensional art forms (including drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, encaustic, etc.), all three dimensional art forms (including sculpture, metal working, woodworking, ceramics, furniture making, etc.), dance, music, theater, circus arts, new media, textile arts, folk art, paper arts, bookmaking, candle making, literary arts, etc. All art forms are welcome.

This call is open to all artists age 18 years and older who currently live or work in Buncombe, Madison, Yancey, McDowell, Rutherford, Henderson, Transylvania, and Haywood Counties. Visiting artists and performers are welcome to submit qualifications for times they are in town.

Opportunities are available to artists, demonstrators and performers to attend community meetings to ask questions about the process and CaFE™.

Current meeting dates are:

• Wednesday, December 15 at 2pm At Fine Arts League
• Saturday, December 18 at 11am at Recreation Park
• Wednesday, January 12 at 2pm At Fine Arts League
• Monday, January 31 at 6pm at Recreation Park
• Thursday, February 10 at 6pm At Fine Arts League

Additional dates will be scheduled.

For detailed information and to submit online, visit  www.callforentry.org or contact Diane Ruggiero, Superintendent of Cultural Arts at  druggiero@ashevillenc.gov or 828-259-5815.

BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC – Back for the holiday season at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts at 225 W. State Street is Acts of Renewal’s “Rediscovering Christmas” on Friday and Saturday, December 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. Jim Shores, Montreat Communications Professor, and his wife Carol Anderson, former Montreat professor, are featured in this humorous, thoughtful holiday production. All tickets are $15; early reservations are recommended for the 90-seat theater, as the performances generally sell out well before the opening show. Although the show is family-friendly, it is not geared toward children. For more information visit BlackMountainArts.org, or call 828-669-0930.

Acts of Renewal is the national touring company of Black Mountain’s Jim and Carol Anderson-Shores, professional actors whose material has been aired on PBS and other national TV and radio shows. Their reputation for excellence in live theater has been long-standing. Shores and Anderson met while working at the A.D. Players Christian theater company in Houston, Texas, and married in 1992. After graduate school they began touring, performing at conferences, colleges, and church events. Now settled in the western NC mountains their time is juggled between raising their two sons, Zach and Zander, touring across the country, and teaching and performing locally. In July Shores, chairman of the Communications Department at Montreat College, won Best Original Screenplay at the Gideon Media Arts Conference for “Hunks,” a feature-length teen comedy. Anderson, an established character actress, also performs one-woman shows, teaches, and serves as Business Manager for their company. Most recently Acts of Renewal was in Washington, D.C., to perform their original theater about stresses in marriage for seminars for military couples coping with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Shores and Anderson, who have both honed their talent for comedic timing, can transform from one character to another in a split second without ever losing the audience’s recognition of who they are portraying. “Rediscovering Christmas,” a holiday favorite locally and nationally, is comprised of a series of their original vignettes. They range from the comedic tale of a blue collar shepherd and his wife who are in the right place at the right time on Christmas eve to a story of a single mom trying to provide Christmas morning for a houseful of kids on a waitress’s salary. Don’t miss it.

ASHEVILLE, NC – UNC Asheville’s Blowers Gallery will present “The Essence of Asheville,” an exhibit of glass and encaustic artwork by local artist Marsha Balbier, January 5-30. The exhibition includes works in fused and shaped glass as well as encaustic paintings, which are created using heated beeswax. The encaustic technique dates back to ancient Egypt, when it was used to create mummy portraits.

glass work by Marsha BalbierBalbier’s work is featured in the permanent collection of the Banff School of Fine Arts at the University of Alberta. She has studied fine arts and design in various schools, including the Banff School of Fine Arts, the University of Northern Colorado, Endicott College and the Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science.

Blowers Gallery, located in UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library, is free and open to the public, and is usually open 7 days a week. For gallery hours and more information, call 828.251.6436, or visit the gallery Web site.

ASHEVILLE, NC – A-B Tech will offer a new schedule of four-week classes starting with the spring semester that allows students to be full time while taking only one class a month.

“The average age of our students is 28,” A-B Tech President Hank Dunn said. “Many of them are working or caring for children in addition to going to school, so it’s not unusual for life to happen sometime during a semester. Their work hours change or their child gets sick, and before they know it, they’ve missed so many classes, they wind up dropping out with no credits to show for that entire semester.

“These new four-week classes mean students don’t have to take more than one class at a time ever again, and they don’t have to make it through a full 16-week semester before they earn any credits.”

The new format offers students an opportunity to immerse themselves in a single subject for four weeks. Each class contains the same content as a 16-week class and provides the same amount of credit.  Financial aid is available for eligible students who enroll at least half time, even if just taking one class at a time. A student can receive full financial aid if registered for 12 credits in the new format.

“Four-week classes will give students flexibility to fit their lifestyle,” said Sam Dosumu, Vice President of Instruction at A-B Tech. “A typical semester is 16 weeks long. That’s four, four-week terms. If a student takes a single, three-credit-hour course for each of those four-week terms, he or she will have 12 hours of credit by the end of the semester, enough to meet the requirement for full-time status.”

Four-week courses allow part-time students to choose the weeks they want to attend class during a semester and take a break in between.

“Four-week terms are perfect for working adults, single parents or anyone who’s pressed for time or having difficulty juggling multiple classes,” Dosumu said. “They’re also ideal for university-bound students because of the variety of transfer courses available.”

The scheduling allows students to concentrate on assignments, projects and tests without other classes competing for their time. “Research shows that students who focus on one class at a time retain more knowledge and tend to stay in college to accomplish their educational goal,” Dosumu said.

A-B Tech offers more than 60 programs of study and several scheduling options including nights, weekends, online and four- and eight-week courses. Four-week terms are scheduled Jan. 10-Feb. 7, Feb. 8-March 7, March 8-April 5, and April 6-May 10.  Registration is under way. For more information, visit abtech.edu or call 254-1921, ext. 144, 145 or 7520.

ASHEVILLE, NC – The Cultural Arts Division of City of Asheville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department is seeking artist instructors, demonstrators, and performers for cultural arts programming throughout Asheville.

Artists are invited to submit portfolios of their current work along with a resume, letter of interest, and references. Artists may submit as individuals or as teams.

The application deadline is Monday, February 28, 2011.  All application materials must be submitted online through CaFÉ™ at  www.callforentry.org.  There are no fees for artists to apply or to use the CaFÉ™ online application system.

The Cultural Arts Division works with instructors, demonstrators and performers to provide hands-on art classes, demonstrations or performances to children, teens, adults, and seniors throughout the community.

Art forms may include, but art not limited to, all two-dimensional art forms (including drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, encaustic, etc.), all three dimensional art forms (including sculpture, metal working, woodworking, ceramics, furniture making, etc.), dance, music, theater, circus arts, new media, textile arts, folk art, paper arts, bookmaking, candle making, literary arts, etc. All art forms are welcome.

This call is open to all artists age 18 years and older who currently live or work in Buncombe, Madison, Yancey, McDowell, Rutherford, Henderson, Transylvania, and Haywood Counties. Visiting artists and performers are welcome to submit qualifications for times they are in town.

Opportunities are available to artists, demonstrators and performers to attend community meetings to ask questions about the process and CaFE™.

Current meeting dates are:

• Wednesday, December 15 at 2pm At Fine Arts League
• Saturday, December 18 at 11am at Recreation Park
• Wednesday, January 12 at 2pm At Fine Arts League
• Monday, January 31 at 6pm at Recreation Park
• Thursday, February 10 at 6pm At Fine Arts League

Additional dates will be scheduled.

For detailed information and to submit online, visit  www.callforentry.org or contact Diane Ruggiero, Superintendent of Cultural Arts at  druggiero@ashevillenc.gov or 828-259-5815.