Truck found crushed in road, no driver

By Chad Nesbitt

Newfound – A truck was found crushed, upside down and in the middle of Newfound Road Sunday morning (May 7). The driver was not present.

Michael Pegg was headed to work that morning and suddenly drove up on the truck. Pegg said, “It was in front of Grace United Methodist Church. I looked around for a body but could not find anyone.” Tyler Johnson works for Honeycutt Towing and picked the truck up after the highway patrol contacted them.

The Leader spoke with North Carolina Highway Patrolman Trooper Smith. Trooper Smith said, “It looked like the driver hit Grace United Methodist Church’s mailbox, ran the truck up on the bank, and it flipped in the middle of the road. We know who the owner of the vehicle is and I am going to the owner’s house to speak with the owner.” Read more...

Erwin’s Principal Jim Brown retiring

By Clint Parker

EHS – Thursday morning (April 27) Erwin Principal Jim Brown met with his staff in the media center at the school and told them that he would be retiring after the end of the school year and before the beginning of next year.

Brown told his staff that they were helping to produce “givers and not takers for our society.” The students they helped educate would leave the school to “...have jobs, pay taxes, be law abiding citizens, get married, have family and be part of building this community and making this community a better place to be.” He then thanked them and said it had been his pleasure to work with them.

Brown has been associated a long time with Buncombe County Schools if you count from his first day of the first grade at Oakley Elementary until now. A total of 54 years on and off either as a student, a teacher or part of the administration. Read more...

Sandy Mush men had a “mind to work”

By Greg Brookshire

Sandy Mush – Over the years the roads we travel have changed. We are seeing this come true before our very eyes with the widening of Leicester Highway. The last time Leicester Highway was improved was in 1956. This destroyed the heart of “Downtown Leicester.”

A few years later, in the late 1960s the residents of Sandy Mush were needing the main road in their community improved. The NC State Department of Transportation (DOT) came up with a plan, but it didn’t include straightening the road between Hogeye Road and Clark Cove Road. Read more...