Ashe County News

"All God's children deserve a simple and decent place to live" was one central theme that was driven home to community members attending Ashe County Habitat for Humanity's First Annual Blueprint Breakfast Saturday at Jefferson Landing.

It's just over a month until the Backstreet in West Jefferson is transformed into a bustling center of music, crafts, food and family fun with the arrival of Christmas in July.

Construction workers at the expansion site of Ashe County's Public Library, work to lay a beam in its proper location.

Kay Sexton, Ashe District Manager for Blue Ridge Electric, MacKinsey Johnson, Whitney Goodman, and Jonathan Greer.

Starting this fall, all students in Ashe County Schools who are not eligible for free or reduced price lunch will pay an additional 10 cents for school lunch.

Remember more than just the rockets' red glare, be certain to be a part of democracy.

Buy some food and you can eat for a day. Learn to grow food, and you can feed yourself, and others, for a lifetime.

Former Ashe County softball player Kendra Yearick finished up her junior season at Peace College, and continued her success on the field and in the classroom.

Three hundred elementary school students across the county had the chance to get their hands dirty and earn their green thumbs this week through the Ashe County Farmers Market Project Growing Gardeners.

Registration takes place on the first day of camp. For more information, call the Ashe County Middle School at 384-3591. Registration forms can be picked up at any of the elementary schools, Year Round Sports, The Hobby Barn, or Magic Video.

Just two months after claiming North Carolina's sixth highest unemployment rate in the month of February, Ashe County continued consecutive months of improving unemployment, falling to 12.1 percent, according to data released by the N.C. Department of Commerce on May 25.

WNC Communities held the 22nd Annual Western North Carolina Agricultural Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on May 18 at the Mountain Horticulture Crops Research & Extension Center in Mills River.

The Class of 2010 and Husky band director Scott Turnmyre bid farewell to Ashe County High School on Friday night.

We congratulate all our local law enforcement officers for their work to combat this county's illegal drug problem.

Ashe County Board of Commissioners will meet Monday, June 16. A budget workshop continues at 10 a.m. in the second floor conference room of Ashe County Courthouse followed by a work session at 2 p.m. The regular meeting begins at 3:30 p.m. in the third floor commission meeting room.

Summer concerts will get under way Friday night as the Appalachian Mountain Girls take the stage at the West Jefferson Backstreet Park.

The Ashe County Board of Education learned last week a new middle school could cost more than $24 million to design and build, and that upgrading the existing ACMS building to meet present day building codes and educational requirements would cost at least $7.6 million.

Lansing native Tom Gentry will be on hand to help celebrate the Lansing Fire Department's Annual Rubber Ducky Festival on Saturday.

How would you like the opportunity to learn ways to "Eat Smart and Move More" and win $500 at the same time? Appalachian District Health Department is sponsoring a "Families Eating Smart Moving More" series with the 4-H After-School Program in Ashe County at Mountain View Elementary School on Thursday evenings, April 10 and 24 and May 8 and 22, ... (more)

An Ashe County man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme that prosecutors say had more than 400 victims.