Polk Lore

Near as I can figure, there are two ways to make it big in the music business. You can either drop everything else in your life — family, financial security, stability, you name it — and hit the road with whatever instrument you think you’re good at as soon as you’re old enough to leave home, playing tiny venues and begging for opportunities to open for established names until, if you’re very lucky, someone with connections notices you …  in Nashville, New York, or LA.

Or … you can plug away at your craft quietly, writing songs, practicing whenever you have a chance, and slowly, over many years, convert a hobby into something that begins to threaten your day job.

Aaron Burdett did not spend the last 20 years knocking on doors in Nashville. Instead, he stayed close to his home in Saluda, where he got married, started a family, and built a successful construction business. The seven new homes coming together on Greenville Street in Saluda are his work.

But along the way he also managed to become one of the region’s best singer-songwriters. He’s won awards from Merlefest, the USA Songwriting Competition, Mountain Stage, the North Carolina Songwriters Co-op – the list goes on. None of that posed any threat to his day job, though.

But then, this summer, someone with real  connections finally noticed him. When the Steep Canyon Rangers — one of the country’s best known bluegrass and Americana bands — lost their guitarist, Woody Platt, they reached out to Aaron. A few weeks ago, he officially joined the group. And things just got a whole lot more interesting, for both him, and his family. And somehow, one of the most successful musicians ever to come out of Polk County found the time to drop by and talk with me about his music, his childhood in Saluda, and what joining the Rangers will really mean.

Further reading:

The Steep Canyon Rangers

The NDOT has already spent millions of dollars surveying and studying the highway. They have concluded that it’s not safe in its current form,  and the project is now so far along, that it may not be easy to put the brakes on it. In face of growing pressure from the community, the Commissioners held a special meeting on October 10 to approve a letter making a “NO BUILD request to the Foothills Regional Commission’s Rural Planning Organization, or R P O, which is the agency responsible for representing the county’s needs – and wishes – when it comes to DOT projects.

It's not the first time that the DOT has come to the county with a scheme to widen an important route. They tried it a few years ago with Highway 108 between Columbus and Tryon. Back then, just like today, the folks who live on the highway were none too keen on the idea.

The NCDOT has already spent millions of dollars surveying and studying the highway. They have concluded that it’s not safe in its current form,  and the project is now so far along, that it may not be easy to put the brakes on it. In the face of growing pressure from the community, the Commissioners held a special meeting on Oct. 10 to approve a letter making a “NO BUILD" request to the Foothills Regional Commission’s Rural Planning Organization (RPO), which is the agency responsible for representing the county’s needs – and wishes – when it comes to DOT projects.

So, it looks like the commissioners were responding — better late than never — to the citizens who have the most to lose, both in terms of land, and peace and quiet. But if you read the letter all the way to the end, a different story emerges. The last paragraph asks the RPO to stop considering Highway 9 north and Highway 9 south for any modernizations in the future, with the exception of turn lanes at Polk Central Elementary school “or other life safety issues on this route.”

Given that the widening project was first proposed by the DOT as a safety measure, doesn’t that suggest the county’s “no build” letter actually endorses the project?

I reached out to the DOT’s lead engineer on the project, Wanda Austin, but haven’t received a response. But I did sit down with Karen Pack, one of the lead organizers of the community opposition to widening highway 9, on which she has lived for decades. We met at her mother’s house, also right along Highway 9, of course, two days after that board meeting, to talk about the history of the project, what it has meant for her personally, and what the political implications might be.

Resources

BoC letter to RPO:

Keep Highway 9 Rural Facebook group

Foothills Rural Planning Organization:

Three seats on the Polk County Board of Commissioners expire this year. All three are currently held by Republicans, and all three of them are running for re-election. Only two Democrats are in the race, so, there’s no chance that Democrats will achieve take control of the Board. It wasn’t so long ago that they did have control, however, so it’s entirely conceivable that the next Board could be a quite a bit different from the outgoing one. Or it could be exactly the same. In the previous episode of Polk Lore, I talked with Ray Gasperson, one of the two Democratuic challengers. In this episode I talk with the other, Andy Millard. Before I introduce Andy, a quick explanation of why they are the only candidates I expect will appear on this podcast.

I asked all five to sit for an interview. Andy and Ray both agreed without hesitation. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. We all know each other well as Ray is a former commissioner, Andy used to run the Polk County Democratic Party, and I used to serve as the Saluda chair for the same organization. That might also explain why Tommy Melton, Paul Beiler, and David Moore all declined to accept my invitation. To be fair, each offered entirely different reasons. Tommy Melton said he wasn’t confident a podcast conservation would offer the "clarity and accuracy" required to explain his positions. Paul Beiler said he was not in the right frame of mind due to some nightmarish bureaucratic problems he’s having with the State Department, and David Moore said he didn’t think enough people listen to this podcast to make it worthwhile. For the record, Polk Lore has attracted more than 270 listeners to date.

All three offered to supply written responses to my questions. But I don’t think that reading those responses, without a chance to explore the ideas they raise, would work well on a podcast. And it wouldn’t be fair to those who did agree to sit down for a chat. I hope the holdouts change their minds after listening to this episode. But I understand why that’s probably not going to happen.

Andy Millard is a financial planner, a former high school principal — Polk County High’s first — and has long history of political activism. He ran for congress in 2016, cycling around the entire district. We talked at his home in Columbus, earlier this month.

Further reading:

All politics is local. How many times have you heard that old saw? It's probably time we retired it, as even a cursory review of recent history clearly shows that, at best, politics is now a battle between those who would like to keep their campaigns local, and those who defer to the national stage. In some parts of America, local issues are entirely irrelevant.

In a desperate attempt to swim against that current. I’ve invited all five candidates for the three Polk County Board of Commissioner seats up for grabs this fall to sit down for an interview to explore just much national issues have taken over and give them a chance to prove they haven't. Only two have accepted so far, but this episode was recorded more than a month before the election, so there’s still time for the holdouts to change their minds. I hope this talk with Ray Gasperson helps nudge the GOP candidates (Tommy Melton, Paul Beiler, and David Moore) in that direction.

Although Ray’s not an incumbent, he has 12 years of experience on the board, more than any of the current members. He was first elected way back in 2008, as part of a Democrat wave, but the the 2020 election left him without a seat. No candidate for commissioner that year got more than 27 per cent of the vote, but Ray only managed 22 per cent, and that wasn’t enough to keep him on the board. He wants back in, and he’s one of just two Democratic Party candidates on the ballot. Andy Millard is the other.

I sat down earlier this month with Ray in a house that his son is building next door to the farm Ray has been running in Green Creek for 20 years.

Further reading

The Ray Gasperson campaign website

Almost since the day the last coal train rolled down the Saluda Grade 21 years ago, the idea of converting the rail bed to a bicycle and hiking trail has captured the imagination of Polk County’s leading citizens. At first, the scheme wasn’t much more than a fantasy. The railroad, Norfolk Southern, repeatedly insisted that it had no intention of abandoning its right of way, and there were others who would have liked to see the grade turned into a seasonal excursion line for tourists, like the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad over in Bryson City.

When I first heard such talk, I thought a  a service that hauled cyclists up the 1500 feet of elevation gain to Saluda so they could cruise back down was not a bad idea. Not everyone’s in good enough shape to ride all the way up. But that was a long time ago. Although Norfolk Southern made $11 billion  in revenue — and $4.5 billion in profits — last year, and although the company was supposed to take care of the tracks in return for its right of way, none of that money went back into maintaining the Saluda Grade. Substantial portions of the line are in now such poor shape that even if the anyone wanted to bring back the trains, their accounting department would have a fit.

All of a sudden, though, there’s a very real possibility that the rails-to-tra ils vision for the Grade will actually come about. This summer, we learned that Norfolk Southern has finally agreed to sit down and talk with an interested buyer. That buyer is a group of three nonprofits — Conserving Carolina, Upstate Forever, and Spartanburg-based PAL. If they can reach a deal, the 31 miles of track from Inman, South Carolina, to Zirconia, North Carolina, will be ripped up, hauled away and replaced by a trail for cyclists and hikers.

Sounds great. But not everyone is convinced. Rails to trails are popular all over North America, especially in places like Polk County, which doen't have enough people for a commuter rail line. But each project is unique. The Thermal Belt trail in Rutherford County is very different from the Swamp Rabbit Trail between Travelers Rest and Greenville. Some people aren’t comfortable with the idea of getting a flat tire on certain sections of the Thermal Belt trail. And then there’s the fact that not all of the Saluda Grade is all that flat, which could make sharing the path a bit tricky.

So there are questions. If you want answers from someone close to the source in Polk County, that would be Mark Byington, who has long been a director of Conserving Carolina. I joined him on his porch at his home near Tryon earlier this month.

Further reading

Norfolk Southern finances:

PAL:

Conserving Carolina:

Upstate Forever

Hendersonville Times News story

This is the fifth in a series of interviews with candidates for the Polk Schools Board of Education. If you haven’t already listened to the first interview, with Mike Ashworth, I’d recommend you run through at least the first few minutes, as I supply an overview of the elections, which seats are up for grabs, and an explanation of why I am interviewing some candidates and not others. Of course, I hope you listen to the rest of the interview with Mike, and all the other interviews.

In this episode I talk with Judy Jackson, who has been the member of the board for Coopers Gap for 20 years. She’s facing a challenge this year from Dee O’Brien, who I interviewed in the previous episode. A few hours before September’s board meeting, Judy and I talked at Tarheel Paving in Hendersonville, where she works as the office manager.

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with candidates for the Polk Schools Board of Education. If you haven’t already listened to the first interview, with Mike Ashworth, I’d recommend you run through at least the first few minutes, as I supply an overview of the elections, which seats are up for grabs, and an explanation of why I am interviewing some candidates and not others.

In this episode I talk with Dee O’Brien, who is running for the Cooper’s Gap seat. We recorded the interview early in September at the Columbus library.

Resources

This is the third in a series of interviews with candidates for the Polk Schools Board of Education. If you haven’t already listened to the first interview, with Mike Ashworth, I’d recommend you run through at least the first few minutes, as I supply an overview of the elections, which seats are up for grabs, and and explanation of why I am interviewing some candidates and not others. Of course, I hope you listen to the entire interview, and the other episodes in the series.

In this episode I talk with Brittany Klimstra, who is running for the Green Creek seat. We recorded the interview early in September at her apple orchard in Green Creek.

Resources

This is the second in a series of interviews with candidates for the Polk Schools Board of Education. If you haven’t already listened to the first interview, with Mike Ashworth, I’d recommend you run through at least the first few minutes, as I supply an overview of the elections, which seats are up for grabs, and why I chose to interview who I did. Of course, I hope you listen to the entire interview, and the other episodes in the series.

In this episode I talk with Rob Parsons, the current Saluda representative on the board, and the pastor of Saluda’s United Methodist Church. We recorded the interview early in September among the pews of his church in Saluda.

Resources: