Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:
Question: What used to be where the French Broad River Dog Park now is? All of the dogs are collectively freaks at the park, and by that I mean they all dig holes compulsively and eat the dirt. Dog owner lore says there used to be a mine/extraction something or other underneath, and that’s what the dogs are nibbling at.
My answer: Wait a minute. How do you tell the difference between your run of the mill, “I smell another dog’s pee here!” dog freakout, and the more extensive, “I’m pretty sure this was a cattle farm/peanut butter factory where the city buried roadkill for a hundred years!” Dogs are excitable creatures, you know…
Actual answer: I started with the city on this, and city spokesperson Kim Miller checked in with Parks & Recreation staff to cobble together some information. She noted that in the early 1900s, Riverside Park, a top amusement attraction in Asheville, was somewhat nearby, but it washed away in the Flood of 1916.
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“After nearly 80 years, Carolina Power & Light (predecessor to Duke Progress) donated the land to the city of Asheville,” Miller said. “RiverLink and community members developed the park, and it opened on Sept. 25, 1994, as an important early milestone in the transformation of Asheville’s riverfront. I believe there were tires, limestone deposits, and who-knows-what-else on the site before it was redeveloped as a park.”
Let me pause here to note that nearly 30 years of dogs peeing and pooping in an area could easily result in some freaky behavior of our current canines.
“Currently, grading work is taking place at French Broad River Park as part of greenway construction,” Miller added.
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For a deep dive into the site’s recorded history, I went to Buncombe County Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger, who, I must say, delivered a great first line in response.
“I love your ability to get elected officials to do hours of research because someone’s dog smelled something funny at the dog park where the other neighborhood dogs poop,” Reisinger said. “Thanks for keeping me in my place.”
I laughed out loud at that.
Then Reisinger got down to brass tacks.
“The city’s response took me off the scent of the right path,” Reisinger said. “While I am fascinated and easily distracted by the history of the Riverside Park, according to Register of Deeds records, this old amusement park was three miles further downstream from the French Broad River Park. It was roughly where the Stump Dump is today on Riverside Drive.”
So Riverside Park is out of the equation.
“If this historic amusement park was the former tenant of the dog park, there would be a more interesting story to tell, but the city of Asheville was deeded the property, from Carolina Power & Light Company, in 1991,” Reisinger said via email . “It appears that the property was a Carolina P&L substation before it was deeded to the city of Asheville.”
The deed from Carolina P&L to the city shows eight of the nine tracts came from Tom Rowland Jr. and his wife Margaret Rowland. The first tract came from Gay and Effie Green, Reisinger noted.
“So, it would seem that before the property was a substation for Carolina P&L, it was all privately owned,” Reisinger said. “These nine tracts were all deeded to Carolina P&L between 1946-1948.”
Reisinger did sniff out something intriguing, though.
“There was an atypical note in the deed to the city from the power company where the attorney felt the need to use all caps, stating, “CP&L BELIEVES AND HEREBY NOTIFIES ASHEVILLE, ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS, THAT PORTIONS OF SAID TRACTS OF LAND APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN UTILIZED AS REFUSE OR GARBAGE WASTE DISPOSAL AREAS AS PHYSICALLY EVIDENCED IN PART BY BROKEN GLASS, RUSTED CANS, AND RUSTED EQUIPMENT ON, OR NEAR AND UNDER THE SURFACE OF THE GROUND.”
aha! The smoking pile of garbage has been unearthed!
Well, not quite, but maybe the pooches are smelling some decades old garbage and then trying to dig it to China.
“Maybe that’s why they only charged the city $1 for the land,” Reisinger added dryly.
Question: While stopped at a red light at the corner of Patton and Louisiana recently, I noticed the car in front of me with North Carolina plates had an expiration sticker of October 2019. It would seem to me that at some point an Asheville Police Department or Buncombe County Sheriff’s patrol car would be behind this vehicle also. Do they not bother to stop cars with expired plates? Is it too much trouble? To me, the owner has failed to pay his vehicle tax for over two years, and I’m fairly certain they don’t have insurance. How many tickets for expired tags has each agency issued over the last year?
My answer: As someone who has let a tag lapse for, well, let’s just say a good number of months, I can assure you I was still paying insurance on the car. Got to get better about actually reading those notices from DMV, though…
Actual answer: Judging by the length of time it took me to not get much response on these questions, I’m going to guess enforcement here is not a huge priority. Hey, I sent the question out to both agencies in mid-June.
“Asheville Police Department has issued 161 citations-plus thus far this year for expired registration card/tags,” APD spokesman Bill Davis said via email June 21. I got no further response.
Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Aaron Sarver said June 30 via email, “I’m trying to get this data without success so far. There is a new reporting system from the state, I’m told.”
I nagged him later for more information but didn’t hear back.
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When a similar question came up in 2018, a senior officer in APD’s Traffic Safety Unit, offered a little insight that I suspect still holds true: “Often times the tags will be valid and current on insurance and the driver has failed to place the current sticker on the vehicle. If the vehicle is only recently expired, but the insurance is still current, the Asheville Police Department tends to issue written warnings that the motorist can correct and submit without a fine.”
If I get more information, I’ll keep you posted. Meantime, check those tags!
This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com