Monthly Archives: April 2012

New Belgium Brewing announces east coast location in West Asheville.

On April 5th New Belgium Brewing announced that Asheville, North Carolina will be the site for their new east coast brewery and distribution facility. Governor Bev Perdue and New Belgium Brewing CEO Kim Jordan confirmed the news at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce during a press conference featuring New Belgium Brewing beers and trademark bicycles. The future brewery will sit on a 17.5 acres brownfield site in West Asheville at the former WNC Livestock Market on Craven Street. Ground breaking is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2013 with the brewery expecting to be up and operational in the first quarter of 2015. The new facility will be 150,000 square-feet with a planned annual brewing capacity of 400,000 barrels and will be open to the public with a tasting room, tours and rooftop beer garden.

4th Annual Urban Plant Walk on April 14th

Come learn about the medicinal and edible plants growing in the sidewalks, gardens, and wild lots of downtown West Asheville at the 4th Annual West Asheville Urban Plant Walk. The event will be held Saturday, April 14th from 10:30 to 12:00, rain or shine. It will start at the Center for Holistic Medicine, located at 779 Haywood Road, in the heart of downtown West Asheville. The walk will be co-hosted by Nancy Hyton, Licensed Acupuncturist, Certified Herbalist, and founder of the Center, and local herbalist Mary Morgaine Thames of Earth Dancers. The cost is $5 for adults and includes a useful handout of the plants they will talking about on the walk. Kids are free! Sign up in advance at the Center or just come by on the day of the event. You can also call 505-3174 or email info@centerholistic.com to be put on the list.

The Center for Holistic Medicine has been offering Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Therapeutic Massage, and Osteopathic Manual Medicine at 779 Haywood Road in downtown West Asheville for four years and has been voted best of WNC three years in a row in the Mountain Xpress reader’s poll. The Center was founded by Nancy Hyton, a Licensed Acupuncturist and Certified Herbalist, who has a special interest in working with health care practitioners from other fields. The Center’s can be reached online at www.centerholistic.com or by phone at (828) 505-3174.

City of Asheville adds bicycle repair station on Haywood Road in River Arts District

Kelly Ingram, area resident at newly installed bicycle repair station.

City of Asheville employees recently installed a “Fixit” bicycle service station at the Clingman Avenue roundabout. It is a repair stand with an attached air pump and hand tools, including screwdrivers, wrenches and a tire lever. The station provides an opportunity for a cyclist to make minor repairs and adjustments on the road rather than having to carry tools or walk an ailing bicycle home.

“The city consulted with members of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force and other cyclists about whether they would thought this was a good investment in encouraging bicycling, and to find the best location to test one of these stations,” said City Transportation Planner Barb Mee. “This was the consensus.”

The River Arts District is a destination and a bicycle crossroads. It is at the bottom of two long hills that join West Asheville and downtown, and near the Lyman Street and Riverside Drive bicycle lanes. The location is also next to a transit stop that serves downtown and West Asheville.

People have already noticed the repair station. Area resident Kelly Ingram noted, “the bicycle service station is incredibly helpful! I can use it when I bike to and from work and when I’m commuting around town. It is at a very convenient location so I don’t have to worry if my tire gets low or I need a few tools while I’m in the River Arts District or biking to West Asheville!”

The station is an investment aligned with city goals of integrating non-motorized modes into the city’s transportation network and providing Asheville’s residents and visitors with transportation options. It also makes the city friendlier to bicycles, another City Council objective. According to Mee, “An area where bicyclists feel welcome is one where they will patronize area businesses and spend their money. This, along with good bicycle parking, is a way to make cyclists feel welcome.”

“The cycling community is thrilled by the fix-it station in the River Arts District. Cyclists can tune up their bicycles after a ride along the river and greenway. The fix-it station also strengthens Asheville’s commitment to multi-modal transportation as it’s located at a bus stop on the recently improved sidewalks of Clingman Ave. I’m proud of our city’s expansion of infrastructure that supports the many modes people use throughout the day. The fix-it is a winner,” said Mike Sule of Asheville on Bikes, an area advocacy group.

Bicycling for transportation is a way to incorporate physical activity into someone’s day. Studies have found that people who use active transportation are, on average, more physically fit and have a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease compared to people who use only motorized transportation.

“Kudos to the City for the installation of the Bicycle Fix-It Station in the River District. People of all ages and sizes can reap the benefits of feeling good about their health and themselves by engaging in active transportation. Studies show that the risk of chronic disease is reduced and that individuals report greater vitality and a sense of well-being when they walk or bicycle regularly”. Vicki Rowe-Currence, Health Promotion Educator and member of the Asheville Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force.

These public bicycle service stations have been used in other cities, including Wilmington (NC); Cambridge, Mass., and Omaha, Nebraska. A full press release from the City of Asheville can be found here.

RiverLink continues cleanup at Karen Cragnolin Park

After years of soil and water testing and further grant writing, RiverLink has been able to hire D.H. Griffin to remove cement remnants and all rock and debris over one inch in diameter on the site in preparation of planting the entire site using a process known as “phytoremediation” — nature healing nature.

RiverLink is working with Dr. Ari Ferro, an expert in phytoremediation, to develop and document the phytoremediation that will clean the contaminated soil, known as Volatile Organic Compounds or VOC’s, from the old junkyards. One of the many benefits of using phytoremediation is that the cleanup can occur in-situ, that means in place, without removing and transporting the contaminated soils to another location. This cost-effective “green” technology uses plants to “vacuum” VOC’s from the soil through their roots. The project will use all native grasses which have been infused with a bacteria cultivated from the site that can only survive on the VOC’s found in the soil at the old junkyard.

RiverLink, using EPA grant funds, has hired phytoremediation specialist Dr. Ari Ferro, the Principal Environmental Scientist with URS Corporation to oversee the planting along with Dr. Daniel van der Lelie, Senior Director for the Center for Agriculture and Environmental Engineering at RTI International. Incidentally Dr. van der Lelie’s company has also been hired to grow the hops for the new Sierra Nevada Brewery in Mills River. Overseeing all the work and helping to coordinate schedules is Rindt-McDuff Associates, Inc.

Concrete and rock removal is scheduled to conclude mid-April. The team of specialists will start seeding the entire site with bacteria-inoculated native plants this spring. The soil remediation will take approximately three years to be complete.

RiverLink invites the public to use Amboy Road and the easement it donated to build the sidewalk funded by the NCDOT that crosses the project and connects the French Broad River greenway to the north and to Carrier Park to the south until the new park is open to the public.