Montreat College selects its 8th president

MONTREAT – Montreat College announced June 23 the selection of Paul Maurer, Ph.D., as its eighth president.

The school’s Board of Trustees voted to select Maurer, 52, to lead Montreat College, beginning July 21.

Following his appointment, Maurer said that, after nearly a year of questions and controversy over a proposed merger, it will take the entire community to move the college forward.

“I can’t do this turnaround, but we can do this turnaround as a community,” Maurer said. “I have a long history of work in Christian education, and I determined a very long time ago that was the space I was supposed to be in.”

He succeeds Dan Struble, who left the school last January. Since then, Joe Kirkland has been serving as interim president.

The appointment of Maurer comes nearly a year after Montreat announced plans to pursue a merger with Point University. Those plans prompted questions and fears the Montreat residential campus could close.

After the merger plans fell through earlier this year, The college renewed its search for a new president. Montreat also launched a major fund-raising campaign as part of its “All In” initiative.

Maurer is moving to Montreat from Gordon College (north of Boston), where he served as senior vice president of external relations.

Maurer worked previously at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., and at Trinity International University in Chicago.

For about four years, Maurer was president of Sterling College in Kansas. Maurer said he was bought in to “get things on the right track” at Sterling, but he “parted ways” with the college in 2012.

Maurer earned a doctorate in political science from Claremont Graduate University. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati and master of divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. 

City councilman charged with driving while impaired

Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell — pulled over by a state trooper on Interstate 240 on the night of June 19 — was later charged with driving while impaired.

Bothwell’s blood-alcohol content was 0.10 percent, according to a citation filed at the Buncombe County Magistrate’s Office. The legal limit for driving in North Carolina is 0.08 percent.

“I made a regrettable choice, and I’ll live with the consequences,” Bothwell told the news media the next day. “I was in the wrong and I know it.”

N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper S.K. Scharf pulled over Bothwell on I-240 westbound at 10:45 p.m. The 2009 Toyota station wagon he was driving did not have a license plate, the citation stated. 

Bothwell said he was driving a friend’s car that lacked a tag because it was recently purchased from an individual. The friend was in the car with him when he was stopped, he said.

He was traveling at 55 mph, the trooper said on the ticket.

“I was returning from a friend’s celebration in Black Mountain,” Bothwell said. “There was no accident. There was no speeding.” He said his last driving infraction was a speeding ticket about 30 years ago. He declined further comment.

Highway Patrol Sgt. C.G. Harris, a supervisor in the Asheville office, said he reviewed the trooper’s notes and watched the video of Bothwell’s arrest and described the councilman as “polite and cooperative.”

He complied with all of the trooper’s requests and thanked the trooper for doing his job,” Harris said. “The trooper had really no idea who he was until (Bothwell) divulged that at the end of the incident. He didn’t try to use anything to get out of it.”

Once at the Buncombe County Detention Facility, Bothwell mentioned to the trooper that he was on council, Harris said, but “that’s the only time he explained who he was.”

Bothwell was released on a written promise to appear in court. His court date was set for Aug. 4.

In the aftermath, John Boyle wrote in a June 22 column in the Asheville Citizen-Times (headlined “Should Cecil Bothwell resign?”) that the councilman’s “adamant opponents will call for his head, which they already have, but, then again, they’re not the ones who voted for the guy.

“So if Bothwell, 63, keeps a low profile and works hard, it’ll probably blow over before he’s up for re-election again in 2017, if he runs. If he tries again for a regional office at the state or congressional level, his opponent will pound him with the DWI charge, but I suspect Bothwell knows that.

“With no accident and no one hurt in this case, and no history of drunk driving, I’d say Bothwell will get a second chance on this one.

“At least until his next big news-making event,” Boyle concluded.

On a different tack, Asheville radio talk show host Pete Kaliner (WWNC-AM 570) and his listeners discussed — at length — the charge against the councilman, especially at what Kaliner sees as the irony that Bothwell faces such a charge while serving as the chairman of City Council’s Public Safety Committee.

City budget approved with no tax increase

Asheville City Council on June 24 gave its unanimous approval to a budget for fiscal 2014-15 that keeps the city tax rate at the same level and finances $24.5 million in new construction and equipment purchases.

The budget includes the first payment on a five-year plan that will result in more than $129 million in capital improvements, including the following:

• Major sidewalk construction projects along Charlotte Street, Hendersonville Road and Leicester Highway.

• Construction of greenways in or near the River Arts District.

• A new fire station.

• Significant increase in money for paving and replacement of police cars and other city vehicles.

The funding for the improvements will be generated from a mix of tax revenue, grants and matching funds from state and federal government and borrowing.

The general fund budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 totals $99.5 million — a 3.8 percent increase over the current budget. The total budget, including city operations primarily funded by fees and similar revenue, is $147.6 million.

The budget includes a 3 percent pay raise for city employees.

Toxic air testing grows near old CTS operation

 Following the voluntary evacuation earlier in June of 13 people living nearby, the Environmental protection Agency later in the month expanded its testing for toxic air near the old CTS plant on Mills Gap Road in South Asheville.

The property is now a Superfund site.

Testing performed June 24 was designed to determine if those living in the seven households near the former CTS plant have unsafe levels of trichloroethylene, a toxic industrial solvent.

The latest round of testing is designed to show how far the unsafe levels of the fumes extend from severely contaminated springs next to the old CTS plant — and whether more families shold be evacuated, according to an EPA spokeswoman.

Tanks called summa cannisters were placed inside and outside the houses by technicians. The devices were to collect air for 24 hours before they are retrieved the next day and sent to a lab for analysis.

Once the results from the testing are known, the EPA will determine if it will recommend the evacuation of more homes.

If the levels of TCE, a human carinogen, are above the EPA action level, more air testing will be conducted at homes farther from the contaminated springs, an EPA spokeswoman said.

Heavy metal band spills pig’s blood, closing LAB

 The Lexington Avenue Brewery closed — temporarily — following the splattering of pig’s blood on a stage during a June 22 heavy metal rock show.

The LAB was expect to reopen as soon as June 26, or at the latest, by that weekend, depending on how fast the cleanup happens, LAB co-owner Mike Healy said.

In the aftermath, the Buncombe County Health Department said there is no public health risk from the incident.

“There is no concern for good safety,” Sue Ellen Morrison, the lead communicable disease nurse with the health department, said. “It was nowhere near the kitchen area.”

She added that the LAB will not need a reinspection to reopen.

Reportedly, brewery employees contacted the health department after the Empire Tattoo Party show, which featured the bands Bask, Generation of Vipers and Young and In the Way.

After the show, fans of Young and in the Way posted photos on Instagram, which show a red liquid covering the LAB stage, and images of themselves splattered with a dried brown substances.

One fan noted, “Great shot. Venue was not happy. Haha.”

Healy said that, indeed, the incident was not amusing. He added that almost 50 employees were out of work while a massive cleanup — following Young and in the Way — was underway.