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MOUNTAINEERS
GAIN SOCON
SUPREMACY

ASHEVILLE

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CITIZEN-TIMES VOICE OF THE MOUNTAINS • CITIZEN-TIMES.com November 15, 2009

S U N D AY E D I T I O N
LIVE BREAKING NEWS
ON YOUR CELL PHONE Group:
U.S. 25
Text CTUPDATES to 44636
to get local breaking news
a factor
in death
on your cell phone.

Road not safe

for pedestrians
By Joel Burgess
JBURGESS@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
ASHEVILLE — The ab-
sence of crosswalks, side-
walks and warning signs
make U.S. 25 in South
Asheville a dangerous
place for pedestrians and
FORT HOOD FUNERALS: was a factor in the recent
Across the country, mourners PHOTOS BY JOHN FLETCHER/JFLETCHER@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM death of a 4-year-old boy, a
stood before several flag- While visiting from South Dakota, from left, Janice and Bryon Marteny look for gems alongside their friends, Willis and national transportation
Jannis Palmer at the Gem Mountain Gemstone Mine just off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Spruce Pine. group said.
draped coffins during funeral
Edward Jamal Chalk
services for several of the 13

The parkway’s impact

was killed early Wednes-
victims of the Nov. 5 shoot- day morning after he dart-
ings in Fort Hood, Texas. ed from his mother and in
Page A2 front of a car as the two
were crossing U.S. 25 to get

75 YEARS LATER
to a bus stop. Christal
TIGERS ROLL: Clemson Brice was on the way to the
stayed atop the ACC Atlantic first of two jobs where her
Division by whipping N.C. mother would pick up
State. Page C1 Chalk.
Police said the car’s
driver, Jane Hale, a 57-
year-old Mission Hospital
RARE WIN: Western Carolina nurse from Fletcher, was

Spruce Pine 1 of WNC towns reaping gains

snapped an eight-game road not at fault and will not be
skid Saturday. Page C2 charged. Hale was going
the posted speed limit of
45 mph and did not have
FINDING A FAMILY: It was By Nanci Bompey time to brake, according to
an interesting series of NBOMPEY@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM a police report.
events that brought Teresa SPRUCE PINE — The owners of the Orchard But Transportation for
Dennison from her home in at Altapass took North Carolina to court when America, a group advo-
the state proposed
Mills River to the annual acquiring 200 acres
WNC Foster/Adopt Fall Festi- Please see ROAD on A6
of the apple orchard
val in Asheville. Page B1 to create the Blue
Ridge Parkway in the

MURDER-SUICIDE: A man
accused of killing a man and
1930s.
The owners at the
time ran a wholesale
Feds plan
then shooting himself in the
head in a restaurant parking
apple business and
did not see the bene-
fit of having the sce-
to tighten
Medicare
lot likely planned the slaying nic road come
and suicide, police said. through the middle of their land, said the or-
Page B1 chard’s current owner Bill Carson.

Today’s forecast
Bill Carson owns the Orchard at Altapass, which is just off the
Blue Ridge Parkway near Spruce Pine.
“They knew it was inevitable that it was go-
ing to go through, but they argued that it would
cause more damage than good,” he said. “I
payments
WEB EXTRA:
don’t know if they ever thought the traffic
would be much up there.”
Report: $47B in
For photo galleries, an interactive map, and more stories on the
More than 70 years later, the parkway has
not destroyed the orchard. In fact, said Carson,
claims questioned
Mostly sunny Blue Ridge Parkway’s 75th anniversary, visit CITIZEN- it may be the thing that saved it. By Hope Yen
TIMES.com/parkway. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
High 74, Low 35 Please see PARKWAY on A8 WASHINGTON — The gov-
WEATHER, C12 ernment paid more than
$47 billion in questionable
Index
BUSINESS E1-6
Parkway design a unique endeavor Medicare claims including
medical treatment show-
ing little relation to a pa-
CLASSIFIED F1-F12, G1-G6 By Nanci Bompey Estate. Political and social bat- tient’s condition, wasting
LIVING D1-10
NBOMPEY@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM PARKWAY PARTY tles, and the work of many peo- taxpayer dollars at a rate
ASHEVILLE — As a child, Carlton The Blue Ridge Parkway’s 75th anni- ple, helped to create the parkway , nearly three times the pre-
LOTTERIES A2
Abbott watched his father sit at said Anne Whisnant, author of vious year.
MOUNTAINS B1-3 the kitchen table and work on versary includes hundreds of events “Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Excerpts of a new feder-
NATION/WORLD A2-4 plans for the Blue Ridge Parkway. throughout the year in communities Ridge Parkway History”. al report, obtained by The
But it wasn’t until he became surrounding the national park. For a “When you look at the park- Associated Press, show a
OBITUARIES B2
an architect himself that Abbott list of events, visit www.blueridge way design, it is sometimes easy dramatic increase in im-
OPINION A10-11 began to understand the planning parkway75.org. to forget other factors that went proper payments in the
PUZZLES G2 and design that his father, Stanley into why the parkway turned out $440 billion Medicare pro-
REAL ESTATE F1-3 Abbott, put into creating the the way it did,” she said. gram that has been cited
469-mile scenic highway. These stories and others about Parkway officials hope under- by government auditors as
SPORTS C1-11 As the parkway’s chief archi- the creation of the parkway, and standing the planning, develop- a high risk for fraud and
YOUR NEWS B5-7 tect, Stanley Abbott was respon- the people who were responsible ment and history of the nation’s waste for 20 years.
sible for not just creating a road for shaping it, were shared during most visited national park site It’s not clear whether
that hugs the mountains of West- a panel discussion of parkway will help visitors understand the Medicare fraud is actually
ern North Carolina, but also for history at the Folk Art Center on importance of preserving it. worsening. Much of the in-
the consistency of the bridges, Saturday, one of a series of events “If we care to continue to build crease in the last year is at-
tunnels, overlooks and historic kicking off of the parkway’s 75th on the dream of the people who tributed to a change in the
structures that create a special anniversary. created the parkway,” said Gary Health and Human Serv-
A GANNETT NEWSPAPER | VOL. 140 | experience for millions of visi- “Battle for the Blue Ridge Everhardt, a former superinten- ices Department’s metho-
NO. 319 | 114 pages | © 2009
tors each year. Parkway” also included stories of dent of the parkway and the pan- dology that imposes stric-
“There will never be another the decision to bring the parkway el’s moderator, “it is important to ter documentation
QUESTIONS ABOUT Blue Ridge Parkway,” Abbott re- through Asheville, the Cherokee understand where we have been
CIRCULATION? members his father telling him. Indian reservation and Biltmore and recognize our response.” Please see MEDICARE on A8
Call (800) 672-2472
Product: ASH_Broad PubDate: 11-15-2009 Zone: Main Edition: First Page: main_8 User: msyed Time: 11-14-2009 21:26 Color: K

A8 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2009 NEWS ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES • CITIZEN-TIMES.COM

PARKWAY: 16 million visitors spent about $340 million in local economies in 2008
Continued from A1
Although apple grow-
ing in the region has de-
clined, the orchard’s loca-
tion on the Mitchell-Mc-
Dowell county line on the
Blue Ridge Parkway, and
Carson’s transformation
of the orchard into a place
to experience local culture
and history, has helped the
Historic Orchard at Alta-
pass become a stop for
60,000 parkway visitors
each year, about half of
which Carson estimates
are nonlocal travelers.
A major driver
of tourism
“Even if people had
been aggressive about
keeping it going (as an ap-
ple orchard), I think it
would be gone by now,”
Carson said. “Without the
parkway, the orchard
would not exist.”
As the nation’s most-
visited national park unit,
the Blue Ridge Parkway is
a major driver of tourism
in Western North Carolina
and is often said to be a
gateway into the 29 coun-
ties and dozens of com-
munities along its
469-mile route.
More than 16 million
visitors spent more than
$340 million in local econ-
omies in 2008, according
to the National Park Serv-
ice. One estimate puts the
economic impact of the
parkway as high as $2.3 bil-
lion a year.
“It really does bring
more visitors to the small
towns of Appalachian
North Carolina,” said
Richard Starnes, a profes-
sor at Western Carolina
University. “I will say that
because the park took the
route it did, it did bring
prosperity to areas of
WNC through tourism
that otherwise would not
have experienced it.”
For rural towns and
communities that lie on or
near the parkway, the sce-
nic road has become a ma-
jor part of their identity
and their economy.
Gina Phillips’s grandfa-
ther helped to build the
parkway as part of the
Works Progress Adminis-
tration, and Phillips al-
ways takes tourists to her
favorite rock on the scenic
road.
“It is a huge part of who
we are and, without a
doubt, it has a huge eco-
nomic impact on us,” said
the Spruce Pine resident
whose family has lived in
Mitchell County for
generations.
Spruce Pine
Spruce Pine grew up
around the railroad and
the mining industry, and
tourism that existed be-
fore the parkway mainly
revolved around two in-
dustries, said Chris Holli-
field, who has co-authored
a history on the town.
Tourism from the park-
way has led to growth of
the town near the scenic
road, including the ap-
pearance of fast-food res-
taurants and a Walmart,
Hollifield said. The town
recently passed a law to al-
low alcohol, which Holli-
field said will help attract
more businesses, and the
local community college is
starting a tourism and hos-
pitality program.
“There has been a lot of
change that the road has
created here,” said David
Biddix, Hollifield’s co-au-
thor.
Shirley Hice, director of
the Mitchell County
Chamber of Commerce,
said the parkway has a
“huge economic impact,”
which is most often felt
when the parkway is
closed. The county’s occu-
pancy and retail tax
dropped 20 percent when
sections of the parkway
were closed following hur-
ricanes in 2004.
Hice and others said
tourism and the parkway
are becoming increasingly
important to rural coun-
ties like Mitchell County,
where the unemployment
rate as of August was more
than 13 percent.
“The economic base
that they had, furniture, to-
bacco and textiles, have re-
ally been in decline in the
last 10 years, and so the
Blue Ridge Parkway,
which has always been im-
portant, is now really im-
portant,” said Dana Clark,
a professor of hospitality
and tourism at Appala-
chian State University. “It
is a vital economic feeder
to counties that are des-
perate for economic feed-
ers.”
The early days
of the parkway
When the parkway was
being built, its economic
benefits may not have
been initially apparent to
some landowners and
communities along the
route. They realized that
its wide right-of-way,
limited access and non-
commercial use would
mean it would be difficult
to capitalize on the
Please see PARKWAY on A9

MEDICARE: Claims suspect

Continued from A1
requirements and in-
cludes more improper
payments — part of a data-
collection effort being or-
dered government-wide
by President Barack Oba-
ma next week to promote
“honest budgeting” and
accurate statistics.
Still, the fiscal 2009 fi-
nancial report — covering
the first few months of the
Obama administration —
highlights the challenges
ahead for a government
that is seeking in part to
pay for its proposed health
care overhaul by cracking
down on Medicare fraud.
While noting that several
new anti-fraud efforts
were beginning, the gov-
ernment report makes
clear that “aggressive ac-
tions” to date aimed at re-
ducing improper pay-
ments had yielded little
improvement.
In recent years, the sus-
pect claims have included
Medicare prescriptions
from doctors who were
dead, and requests for pay-
ment for medical supplies
such as blood glucose
strips for sexual impo-
tence and diabetic shoes
for leg amputees. Patients,
many of them new citizens
who barely speak English,
are sometimes recruited
by brokers who go door-
to-door offering hundreds
of dollars for use of their
Medicare numbers.
Obama is expected to
announce new initiatives
this week to help crack
down on Medicare fraud,
including a government-
wide Web site aimed at
providing a fuller account
of health care spending
and improper payments
made by various agencies.
According to the report,
the Bush administration
from 2005-08 reported im-
proper payments of rough-
ly 4 percent in the fee for
service program, or about
$17 billion total in 2008.
Government officials at
the time, however, typical-
ly did not consider a Medi-
care payment improper if
the medical documenta-
tion was incomplete or a
doctor’s signature was il-
legible.
Other findings:
■ In the Medicaid pro-
gram for the poor, roughly
$18.1 billion, or 9.6 percent
of claims, are believed to
be improper payments.
■ Using a baseline of
12.4 percent in improper
payments in the Medicare
fee for service program,
HHS is setting targets of
reducing fraud and waste
to 9.5 percent, 8.5 percent,
and 8.0 percent, respec-
tively, for fiscal years 2010
through 2012.
Records released ear-
lier last week showed that
the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services for
three years ignored inter-
nal watchdog warnings.
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ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES • CITIZEN-TIMES.COM NEWS SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2009 A9

PARKWAY: Spruce Pine businesses foresee roadway’s continuing role in the future
Continued from A8 park but also by how well bigger growth of nonprof-
people do their jobs in the its like his orchard that are
parkway, according to local communities,” he focused on preserving the
Anne Whisnant, a profes- said. culture and heritage of the
sor at UNC Chapel Hill In Spruce Pine, the rela- mountains. He said while
and author of “Super-Sce- tionship between the com- his orchard doesn’t em-
nic Motor- munity and the parkway is ploy a lot of people, it does
way: A Blue apparent at the Museum of drive visitors into the local
Ridge Park- North Carolina Minerals. communities.
way His- The town’s chamber of “The orchard is never
tory.” commerce runs the visitor going to be a huge eco-
Whis- center there and at one nomic driver,” Carson
nant said the time the chamber had its said, “but it can be a huge
park service headquarters there. cultural engine that can
Anne was not ad- The parkway also sends grow into a huge economic
Whisnant verse to tou- visitors into the town. engine for the communi-
rism, but About half of the Rich- ty.”
was intent on preserving mond Inn’s visitors come Phillips and others said
the scenic quality of the from the parkway, said while the parkway and
parkway, which meant no owner Maggie Haskell. tourism are playing bigger
signs or billboards on the Jerri’s Seafood and role in the economy of
route and few turnoffs. Steaks sees a lot of park- Mitchell County, they real-
“It is a huge conun- way travelers during the ize that they are not the an-
drum,” she said. “You don’t spring, summer and fall, swer to the county’s eco-
want to do it in a way that said owner Jerri Hughes. nomic woes, and the coun-
ruins the attraction.” “We probably would be ty is also recruiting indus-
The question over what hurting if we didn’t have try and trying to grow
types of facilities would be the parkway,” she said. small business.
developed on the parkway, Hospitality industry
and how local communi- tween the parkway and lo- The future jobs often don’t pay as
cal communities has im-
ties would play a role in The parkway will con- much and are more seaso-
proved as the park service
providing concessions to tinue to play a big role, if nal than other industries,
has embarked on more
visitors, escalated after not a bigger role, in Spruce and the tourism industry
World War II, Whisnant partnerships, like the one Pine, said Van Phillips, a can be more susceptible to
they have with the Blue
said. The park service em- former county commis- economic downturns.
barked on Mission 66, aRidge Parkway Associa- sioner and former presi- “A lot of people look at
tion, and tourism has
plan to drastically increase dent of the Mitchell Coun- it as a panacea,” Biddix
grown in the region.
construction and facilities ty Chamber of Commerce. said of tourism.
on the parkway they said Parkway superinten- “We would love to have “I do think it plays a
dent Phil Francis said is-
were lacking in local com- our manufacturing back, role, but in terms of the
sues between the park
munities along the route. but it’s probably not com- long-term health of the
Whisnant said these service and local com- ing back, and we are glad community, they have to
munities exist today, like
plans put the park service to have the tourists and the address a lot of issues
the limit on commercial
at odds with the local busi- traffic,” he said. more than just bringing
ness community in some signs on the road and deci- Carson is pushing for folks in.”
towns. sions to close the parkway
“The business com- during bad weather.
munity felt like the park But he said the parkway
and its communities now
was a little bit uncoopera-
work together for each
tive, or not doing all it
other’s benefit. The park-
could to encourage region-
al business,” she said.way’s 75th anniversary,
These tensions and awhich kicked off Friday, is
focused on promoting the
need to promote business-
relationship.
es in communities around
“The journey people
the parkway led to the for-
take down the parkway is
mation of the Blue Ridge
Parkway Association in more than the parkway it-
self,” Francis said. “It’s the
the 1950s. Today, the asso-
trails along the park, it’s
ciation has its directory
the special vistas, but it is
and travel planner listing
also the experience the
its 600 members at about
communities provide to
two dozen visitor centers
on the parkway. our visitors.”
“The quality of the visi-
Business and the tor experience is deter-
parkway today mined not only by how
The relationship be- well we do our jobs on the