Lamenting "Good Ol' Boy" Woodfin - TribPapers
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Letters

Lamenting “Good Ol’ Boy” Woodfin

After reading Clint Parker’s “deep dive” into the burning question “Are North Buncombe’s Towns Becoming More Like Asheville?” (Tribune Sept 21), I felt compelled to set the record straight. In that article, Mayor Patrick Fitzsimmons of Weaverville stated that he is not sure what it means to become more or less like Asheville and he is correct. The group of Woodfin residents who are spreading the word that people like me and my fellow Council members who were elected in a landslide vote are pushing the town to become more like Asheville. Nonsense! They are simply lamenting the loss of “Good Old Boy Woodfin”. Becoming more like Asheville is living in a town with transparency, ethics and a Council that follows the General Assembly’s rules. After all, both Woodfin and Weaverville are what is known as Mother May I Towns, meaning that we can do exactly what the North Carolina legislature allows and not one step more. It’s the unfortunate reality that your local elected officials deal with daily. This small group of angry Woodfin residents, mostly former town officials and some super-wealthy residents, are upset that by becoming more like Asheville would mean that they would lose the ability to do things like negotiate development deals in private, closed-door meetings and “obtain permission” from the town for projects that don’t match Town Ordinances, but do meet their personal and sometimes selfish interests. Mayor VeHaun summed it up very well when he stated “people that have moved here don’t understand the history of small towns….a lot of them would like to have it like it was where they moved here from." He’s right, the hundreds and hundreds of good folks who have moved here in the past 3-5 years want streets with sidewalks, retail stores, a laundromat, high-speed internet and restaurants…..you know, crazy things like that. The Mayor went on to criticize Council’s recent move to try and block single-use plastic bags in Woodfin, saying “that would effect everything from grocery stores to restaurants to retail," but he left out the fact that Ingles is completely supportive of the plastic bag ban. That company, like the many others that do not exist yet in Woodfin, want to stop the cost of furnishing any bags to customers and actually believe what the scientists say about micro-plastics in the air and water, even in the stomachs of fish caught in the French Broad River. Would this ban be a big change? For Asheville, maybe, but in Woodfin we have one Ingles location, very few restaurants and many of the retailers he refers to have already converted to paper bags and some even give reusable fabric shopping bags to customers. Moe’s BBQ, The Village Porch and the Luncheonette have already converted to almost all recyclable dishes and packaging. In addition, the owners of two of those restaurants are not against the plastic bag ban at all. But Mayor VeHaun is 100% correct that Woodfin residents, including yours truly, “don’t want the homeless population that Asheville got”. Don’t worry, residents of Woodfin, your Town and its awesome police force intend to enforce the laws against panhandling and “living on the side of the woods." Asheville simply stopped enforcing those laws and look where it’s taken them. We absolutely don’t want to be like Asheville in that respect, no siree bob! Perhaps we should really be asking “Should we become more like Weaverville?” They have a town center, free internet, festivals and a robust Community Center. Let’s face the reality that if accepting new growth and planning to manage it is being like Asheville, so be it. You cannot stop change, no matter how much you want something to stay the same. Add to that the changing demographics of Woodfin and you get a population that mostly doesn’t remember the “good old boy days” and would prefer not to experience it. I know this because I knocked on almost 300 Woodfin front doors in 2021, asking people what they wanted to happen in our town moving forward and wow, did I get an earful. I also know this because I get stopped regularly by residents who tell me “thank you for doing the right things” and “don’t let the you-know-who get you down, Councilman Jim”. Don’t worry, I won’t. Welcome to Woodfin. New & Improved! Jim McAllister Woodfin Town Councilman Candiate for Mayor

Woodfin – After reading Clint Parker’s “deep dive” into the burning question “Are North Buncombe’s Towns Becoming More Like Asheville?” (Tribune Sept 21), I felt compelled to set the record straight. In that article, Mayor Patrick Fitzsimmons of Weaverville stated that he is not sure what it means to become more or less like Asheville and he is correct. The group of Woodfin residents who are spreading the word that people like me and my fellow Council members who were elected in a landslide vote are pushing the town to become more like Asheville. Nonsense! They are simply lamenting the loss of “Good Old Boy Woodfin”.

Becoming more like Asheville is living in a town with transparency, ethics and a Council that follows the General Assembly’s rules. After all, both Woodfin and Weaverville are what is known as Mother May I Towns, meaning that we can do exactly what the North Carolina legislature allows and not one step more. It’s the unfortunate reality that your local elected officials deal with daily.

This small group of angry Woodfin residents, mostly former town officials and some super-wealthy residents, are upset that by becoming more like Asheville would mean that they would lose the ability to do things like negotiate development deals in private, closed-door meetings and “obtain permission” from the town for projects that don’t match Town Ordinances, but do meet their personal and sometimes selfish interests. Mayor VeHaun summed it up very well when he stated “people that have moved here don’t understand the history of small towns….a lot of them would like to have it like it was where they moved here from.” He’s right, the hundreds and hundreds of good folks who have moved here in the past 3-5 years want streets with sidewalks, retail stores, a laundromat, high-speed internet and restaurants…..you know, crazy things like that.

The Mayor went on to criticize Council’s recent move to try and block single-use plastic bags in Woodfin, saying “that would effect everything from grocery stores to restaurants to retail,” but he left out the fact that Ingles is completely supportive of the plastic bag ban. That company, like the many others that do not exist yet in Woodfin, want to stop the cost of furnishing any bags to customers and actually believe what the scientists say about micro-plastics in the air and water, even in the stomachs of fish caught in the French Broad River. Would this ban be a big change? For Asheville, maybe, but in Woodfin we have one Ingles location, very few restaurants and many of the retailers he refers to have already converted to paper bags and some even give reusable fabric shopping bags to customers. Moe’s BBQ, The Village Porch and the Luncheonette have already converted to almost all recyclable dishes and packaging. In addition, the owners of two of those restaurants are not against the plastic bag ban at all.

But Mayor VeHaun is 100% correct that Woodfin residents, including yours truly, “don’t want the homeless population that Asheville got”. Don’t worry, residents of Woodfin, your Town and its awesome police force intend to enforce the laws against panhandling and “living on the side of the woods.” Asheville simply stopped enforcing those laws and look where it’s taken them. We absolutely don’t want to be like Asheville in that respect, no siree bob!

Perhaps we should really be asking “Should we become more like Weaverville?” They have a town center, free internet, festivals and a robust Community Center.

Let’s face the reality that if accepting new growth and planning to manage it is being like Asheville, so be it. You cannot stop change, no matter how much you want something to stay the same. Add to that the changing demographics of Woodfin and you get a population that mostly doesn’t remember the “good old boy days” and would prefer not to experience it. I know this because I knocked on almost 300 Woodfin front doors in 2021, asking people what they wanted to happen in our town moving forward and wow, did I get an earful. I also know this because I get stopped regularly by residents who tell me “thank you for doing the right things” and “don’t let the you-know-who get you down, Councilman Jim”.

Don’t worry, I won’t. Welcome to Woodfin. New & Improved!

Jim McAllister
Woodfin Town Councilman
Candiate for Mayor