Commentary


Wayward execution on wayfinding Numerous signs began popping up


around North Buncombe in the last few weeks. Tey are part of the Bun- combe County Wayfinding program designed to showcase the area’s attrac- tions and guide visitors on their trips to the area. Te Partnership on Wayfinding


and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority (BCTDA)


Matt Tate


are behind the $1.8 million initiative. Asheville chipped in $165,000 over-


all to the project, Buncombe County contributed $25,000 and Weaver- ville, Woodfin, Black Mountain and Montreat all gave smaller financial donations. Te main bulk of money is financed through BCTDA’s Tourist Product Development Fund. Te impetus for the program is


sound but the execution is currently lacking, at least in North Buncombe.


landmark - are placed directly in front of ... another sign directing traffic to the Vance Birthplace. Weaverville Town Manager Mike


Morgan said the duplicate signage will eventually be removed, but in this economy, I’m not sure redundancy is a luxury we can afford. I don’t find the signs as aesthetically


unpleasing as our publisher, but they are a bit large. Still, at a price tag of $1.8 million, we should expect more.


Doctors: It’s more about money than the patient?


My longtime doctor retired as of


the end of last year. As I have not had one since and have several health problems, I started looking this week for a replacement. I thought I would choose a local


doctor this time. One that would be closer to home and work, so I put in a call to the one I had thought would be more to my liking and I felt pretty good about.


Clint Parker However, I would soon learn that


I was gravely mistaken in my choice, as the first thing out of the recep- tionist’s mouth when I told her what I was looking for was “What insur- ance do you have?” Not, “Tanks for choosing our


practice” or “How did you hear about us” or “Who was your previous phy- sician?” Well, as most self-employed people who love the freedom of working for themselves, I don’t have health insurance. Tat’s one of the trade offs of being self-employed, no benefits except that of working for yourself. Oh, I’ve looked into health insur-


ance, but with my pre-existing con- ditions, it is just too costly. Tere- fore, I choose to pay as I go and have a type of insurance called Christian Brotherhood, who practices the bib- lical concept of “bearing one anoth- ers burdens.” However, it only covers the more costly aspects of being sick such as hospitalization and surgeries. Te receptionist also asked for all


the medicines I was on and told me to wait. After a few minutes, I was told that only certain members of


tive that there be a public option in health care reform and mandate that everyone must buy health care insur- ance even at the expenses of other necessities such as food, shelter and lights. Te other conclusion is diametri-


cally opposed to the first conclusion that I came to, and that is no one should have health insurance for reg- ular visits to the doctor and only for major events and that doctors should not be allowed to charge over $50 for those visits. With doctors seeing pa- tients ever 20 minutes that would be $150 per hour or $1,200 a day (more than I make and most others). At the same time doctors must be


protected from outlandish lawsuits for malpractice which would help to control insurance costs. Until then I’m putting a WANTED ad in our classifieds which will read as follows: “Wanted a doctor concerned more about the patient than the bottom line, willing to accept payment from uninsured patience and not insur- ance company.” I’ll let you know if there are any


takers. 4 THE TRIBUNE - March 18 - March 24, 2010 www.weavervilletribune.com


the practice’s staff were taking pay- as-you-go patients. It set me to thinking and I’ve come


to two conclusions about health in- surance and doctors. Te first is that everyone should have health insur- ance to ensure the quality of care and, apparently, elevate the doctors’ concerns over money (since that’s the first thing on some doctors’ minds). In order to do that it impera-


A Weaver Boulevard sign directs


visitors to the town’s fire station. Nothing against the fire station, but is the station a landmark for out-of- town guests? Te most egregious signage appears


to be at both New Stock Road and Merrimon Avenue. Signs showing the way to the Vance Birthplace State Historic Site - certainly a worthwhile


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Letters to the Editor


A Charter complaint Dear Editor, As a faithful subscriber to the Weav-


erville Tribune, I have been enjoying your pieces on your great experiences with Charter Communications. Before moving to Weaverville four


years ago this month, I contacted Charter to subscribe to their tele- phone service in advance so that we would have phone service as soon as we moved into our new home. Tey assigned a phone number which I proceeded to give out to all of my friends and relatives. But it turned out that they did not


have a cable serving my house, even though they told me they did. Even worse, they could not give me any idea whatsoever when the cable could be extended to my house from where it ended on our little street. I called them several times to try to find out when I could expect service to start, got transferred from one person to


Commentary ...cont


Clint Parker Historically ugly


You’ve seen those awful historic


signs that dominate the sidewalks and eyesight along Weaverville’s


another, and no one could give me any idea when my Charter phone ser- vice would start working. As I needed to have phone service


immediately after arriving, and the house was already wired for tele- phones, I contacted Verizon and had service within hours of my request. Ten I had to notify all my friends and relatives that the phone number I had given them was wrong. I feel fortunate that I hadn’t spent a lot of money printing up business cards and stationery with my Charter-sup- plied phone number on it. I’m not a fan of Verizon, because


they use some of their profits to influ- ence Congress members in the form of “campaign contributions.” I con- sider such donations to be attempted bribery, although the majority of our U.S. Supreme Court justices think it’s perfectly valid freedom of speech. But at least I have had almost unin- terrupted telephone service ever since. Te one exception was when a squir- rel mistook our outside telephone line for his next meal and chewed it through.


Fred Flaxman Weaverville, NC


weaverville Subscription


$24.99 in Buncombe County $25.99 outside Buncombe County


$26.99 outside North Carolina for one-year subscription Less than 50¢


Main Street. I’ve seen them in Asheville and they don’t look bad there, but it was on a four-lane street and Asheville’s just a little larger than Weaverville. I think the signs on Weaverville’s Main Street were just a bad idea.


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