At some point between yesterday afternoon and this morning (1:48-1:58 a.m., to be exact), my 4th of July poll got spammed. Within that period, almost 70 votes were cast from the same IP address, all voting for the Lake Louise location. Maybe it was a computer or maybe it was a person who just voted over and over again. In either case, it was a suspicious voting pattern, so I chose to take out what I considered to be spam voting and changed the code so it would allow only one vote per IP address.

Within an hour, I received several emails, and it looks like they went out to many others in the community, saying I was manipulating the poll to suit my own agenda. I promise you I am not. Personally, I did like having the fireworks at Lake Louise, but this site is not about what I think, nor do I have the intention of using it to promote what I think.

Nonetheless, perception means a lot, so the poll’s coming down.

Will I do another poll in the future?  Maybe, but probably not for a little while.  In the meantime, if you want to make your thoughts about the festival location known, I suggest contacting our town officials.  They are truly the only ones who have a say about where the 4th celebration will be held.

By the way, I was told some have called the Weaverville Tribune to complain about “their” poll.  This website, however, is not run by or affliated with the Weaverville Tribune in any way, so please don’t call them.  Thanks.

I’ve heard a lot of opinions about the decision to move the town’s 4th of July celebration to Lake Louise this year, so it seems appropriate to have an “official” poll about it. What do you think — should the celebration be moved back to Main Street, or stay at Lake Louise?

I did have a poll here, asking people to vote for their location of choice. The poll was spammed (by a computer or a person, I don’t know), and when I took out the duplicate votes people felt I was manipulating it to suit my own agenda. Thus, I took the poll down.

According to the logs, which include all votes (duplicated or not), the final count was:

Lake Louise: 109 votes
Main Street: 47 votes
Don’t care: 3 votes

Taking out what I considered to be the spam votes which came in between 1:48 and 1:58 a.m. yesterday:
Main Street: 46 votes
Lake Louise: 43 votes
Don’t care: 3 votes

A few months ago I started publishing weekly headlines from the latest edition of the Weaverville Tribune. A few weeks into it I stopped being able to do them on a timely basis due to other job commitments. As I’m able to devote more of my time to this website, I now have the opportunity to bring back the Tribune Headlines posts. So my poll question this week is: do you want me to? Here’s a sample of what I was doing: Tribune Headlines: March 6-12

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A Weaverville Board of Adjustments meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, April 28 at Town Hall. On the agenda:

For the purpose of reviewing a unified business development application at the intersection of US 25/70 and Monticello Road. The project is known as Carolina Group Partners and consisting of a 13,000 sf facility to be used for retail space.

The story is Carolina Group Partners, the developer behind Northridge Commons (Wal-Mart/Lowes Development), wants to tear down the BP station on the corner of 25/70 and Monticello Road and put in a CVS. Making things a little interesting is that the developers behind Weaver Village (McPhail property, on the corner of Weaver Blvd. and Main Street) also want to put in a CVS. Where will the drug store move? Stay tuned….

In the meantime, and because I just installed the software to do online polls on the site, where do you think CVS should go?  If this poll doesn’t work for you, let me know.  I’m still playing around with the technical stuff for it.

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From the Buncombe County Government’s latest newsletter:

Want locally produced milk? Buncombe County residents are asking for sources of locally produced milk and milk products, while remaining dairymen in the county are struggling to stay in business. To determine whether there is adequate demand for locally produced milk to merit local packaging options, the Buncombe County Board of County Commissioners and North Carolina Cooperative Extension have developed an online survey, Demand for Locally Produced Milk.

Click here to complete the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=FQdmDYGB3Ww7L9cvA5LHrA_3d_3d