By JIM GENARO

WOODFIN — Though it was not on the agenda, the management of a regular music event at the Woodfin Community Center dominated discussion at the Jan. 15 meeting of the town’s Board of Aldermen.

About half a dozen residents attended the meeting to complain of what they said were violations of health and safety standards and overall mismanagement of the bi-monthly music gatherings at the center.

Let’s Pick, an open-mic bluegrass and old-time country music night, takes place on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. Though organizers rent the community center from the town, Woodfin does not officially sponsor the event.

Although it used to draw as many as 100 people, “now they’re lucky if there’s 40 people on a Saturday night,” resident Cathy Cook told the board.

Cook said that the kitchen staff has been replaced by “two pre-teen children” who do not observe proper hygiene practices — including petting stray animals and then preparing food without washing their hands.

She also complained that the operator of the music night, Tim Mathis, has monopolized time on the stage for his own band, often blocking other musicians out by saying the list is full, only to perform long sets with his band under multiple names.

Furthermore, Cook said, people often come to the event intoxicated, such as one woman who actually urinated on herself.

“Even after she was so drunk that she wet herself, she wasn’t asked to leave,” Cook told the aldermen.

“Something needs to be done and it needs to be done pretty quickly or the doors are gonna close.”

When asked by Mayor Jerry VeHaun whether Cook and others had spoken to the operator of the event about these problems, Cook responded that she had, but “his attitude is, ‘I’m in charge — I don’t care and I’m gonna do it my way.’”

Another man told the board that he had been turned down when he asked to play music — even though he came several hours before the sign-up sheet was posted.

However, VeHaun responded that it is not the town’s responsibility to manage the event.

“If you rented the thing, it’d be up to you to decide who was gonna be (playing) there,” he said.

Town Administrator Jason Young added that the town sets certain standards on conduct — such as prohibiting the sale of alcohol at the center. But beyond those rules, Woodfin cannot enforce codes of behavior, he said.

“As far as the town policing it, in terms of not allowing intoxicated people on the property, that’s not really the town’s role to fill,” he said.

VeHaun agreed to write a letter to the event’s management addressing the residents’ concerns.

In other action, the board:

• Discussed the ongoing negotiations with the City of Asheville over a proposed annexation plan that would divide the unincorporated areas around the two municipalities, designating areas that each could annex.
Young presented the aldermen with a map, submitted by the city, that included a boundary line between the two annexation areas.

However, he said the map, as it stood, “is not a statutorily valid agreement,” because it only designates a boundary line, without specifically delineating which areas each municipality could annex.
“This map just doesn’t fulfill the legal requirements defined by state statutes,” Young told the board.
The board did not take action on the proposal.