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SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
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ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES • CITIZEN-TIMES.com Ideas Editor Katie Wadington, 232-5829 or [email protected]
BURNSVILLE —
onathan Austin, with an armful ofnewspapers, stood outside the Inglesgrocery store here on the night ofJan. 13, 2011, and did his best to at-
tract a little attention.The snow and ice meant people had
little time for distractions, but Austinwas offering up something for free — thefirst edition of his new weekly newspa-per, the Yancey County News. And the
issue was a blockbuster.One of Austin’s first news stories de-
tailed a state investigation into allega-tions of voter fraud in the election just afew months earlier. Thousands of docu-ments had been seized from the officesof the Yancey County Board of Electionsby state election officials for review.
Austin’s appearance outside the Burns-ville grocery store was unusual for an-other reason. What was a veteran news-paper reporter and editor doing starting
a print newspaper in tough economictimes and in a digital age when otherpublications were struggling with In-ternet competition? After all, it was thebusiness venture for Austin and his wife,Susan, his single employee.
The Austins persevered, hammeringaway at the story of alleged voting fraud,as well as wrongdoing in the local sher-iff’s department. Working 80 or 90 hours
Jonathan Austin took the unlikelycareer step of starting a newspaper,the Yancey County News.BILL SANDERS/[email protected]
SMALL-TOWN
journalistBIG-TIME
risk Jonathan Austin starts newspaperand quickly challenges authority
By Jason Sandford, [email protected]
See NEWS, Page E5
takes
“We are willing to risk making people uncomfortable with the truth ....”
J
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES • CITIZEN-TIMES.C OM SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012 E5IDEAS
Crane named directorof primary care
ASHEVILLE — Dr. Steven D.Crane has been appointed med-ical director of primary care atMission Health.
Crane will direct the MissionMedical Associates PrimaryCare clinical staff and overseeMMA’s primary care clinicalprograms. In addition to his newrole at Mission Health, Cranewill remain active at MAHEC asassistant division director offamily medicine and continue tosee patients at Pardee Flat RockFamily Health Center.
BRCHS receives pediatrictrauma grant
HENDERSONVILLE — BlueRidge Community Health Ser-vices has received a $30,000grant from the CommunityFoundation of Henderson Coun-ty to provide pediatric traumacounseling for the children ofMainstay clients.
Both organizations are col-laborating to provide behavioralhealth and substance abuse/addiction services to adults.This grant will help strengthenthis collaboration and providemuch needed counseling ser-vices to the youngest victims ofdomestic abuse.
Mainstay domestic violenceshelter is committed to helpingvictims of domestic violence inHenderson County acquire theinformation and skills neces-sary to take control over thedecisions affecting their lives.
Mission Hospital named2012 Most Wired
ASHEVILLE — Mission Hospi-tal has been named one of thenation’s Most Wired hospitals,
according to the results of the2012 Most Wired Survey re-leased in the July issue of Hos-pitals & Health Networks maga-zine.
Mission Hospital is one ofonly eight North Carolina hospi-tals to achieve this recognition.
The Most Wired recognitionis based on technology advance-ments made by healthcare or-ganizations to enhance patients’safety, quality and customersatisfaction. For more informa-
tion, visit www.hhnmag.com.
Mission honorsemployees withachievement awards
ASHEVILLE — Mission Hospi-tal recently held its first Ser-vice Excellence AchievementAwards ceremony to honorstaff members who providehigh quality care to its patients.
The Anna Woodfin Award
was presented to Jerome Sear-les. This annual service awardis given to the individual thatmost exemplifies compassion,drive and tenacity demonstrat-ed at Mission Hospital to takecare of the people in WNC.
Winners of Quarterly Ser-vice Champion Awards include:Quarter 1, True Morse and Je-rome Searles; Quarter 2: Dar-lene Wexler and Chuck CharlesParris; and Quarter 3: ReneeEggleston, Kerry Crandall andAleen Dailey.
Quality Team Awards in-cluded:
Mission Surgical SafetyChecklist: Dr. Michael Lecroy,Doug Roberts, Michelle Whitta-ker, Dr. Peter Mangone, LarryBuckner, Dr. Lemuel Kirby,Marianne Lee, Vicki Arnold, PatAdamson, Diane Gambrell,Laurann Adams, Donna Peek,Kelly K. Phillips.
Drug Shortage: Brian Nass,MarySue Carson, Dr. SusanMims, Dr. Alan Johnson, KelliKirkpatrick, Dr. James Keel,Dr. Paul Martin, Jon Brown,Tracy Wilson, Ellen Williams,Jill Jones, Jenny Sippel-Tomp-kins.
Nicholls named head ofbehavioral services
CLYDE — MedWest-Haywoodwelcomes psychiatrist John C.Nicholls, MD, JD, as the med-ical director of BehavioralHealth Services, effective July23.
Nicholls will lead the Behav-ioral Health Unit, an adult psy-chiatric inpatient program atMedWest-Haywood where indi-viduals experiencing emotionalor behavioral problems that areat crisis levels can receive in-patient care and support.From staff reports
HEALTH KUDOS
The Mission Health finance team placed third in Asheville’sChamber Challenge 5K. Charles Ayscue, senior vice president andchief financial officer of Mission Health, and the finance divisionnamed their 5K team “Charles’ Angels.” From left, Francine Hill,Brenda Canter, Cathi Durham and Stephenie Taschereau. SPECIAL TO
CITIZEN-TIMES
Dr. Ronald A. Paulus, president and CEO of Mission Health, left,with Jerome Searles, transport tech at Mission Hospital, winner ofthe Anna Woodfin Award. SPECIAL TO CITIZEN-TIMES/
» Palmer Wahl Instru-mentation Group, 234 OldWeavervilleRoad, has addedthree membersto the salesteam: CherylGarcia, GaryLux and RandyCutrara. Garciahas been pro-moted to man-age the north-eastern U.S.territory. Basedin Asbury, N.J.,she previouslyworked as anuclear engi-neer for GPUNuclear. Lux isthe new vicepresident ofsales and hasmore than 20years of experi-ence in avionicsengineering andadvanced tech-nical sales.Cutrara provid-ed customerservice ex-pertise anddirected the release of fixed,high temperature, and longdistance infrared products in2012.
» Genie Orr has joinedChampion Cred-it Union, at 2311HendersonvilleRoad, Arden, asthe mortgagelending man-ager. Orr bringsmore than 21years of mort-gage lendingexperience tothe team. She can be reachedat 734-1149.
» The Givens Estates Inc., anationally accredited Continu-ing Care Retirement Commu-nity and the largest single-siteCCRC in North Carolina, rec-ognized milestone years ofservice on July 20.
Recognized for five yearsof service were: Lisa Garrett,dining; Anne White, nursing;Katherine Young, nursing;Jaime Conley, financial oper-ations; Karen Valentine, din-ing; Annette Stephenson,environmental services; Che-ryl Wallen, life ministries;Darrell Sullivan, program-ming; Ellis Griffin, environ-mental services; Tamara Arse-novich, environmental ser-vices; Kay Cook, social ser-vices/admissions; LindaGauntt, nursing; TherezaSamuels, dining; Loray Samu-els, dining; Leilani Sides,dining; Jonathan Weaver,technology; Christine Spen-cer, nursing; Josh Peart, tech-nology; Denise Washington,nursing; LaVerne Lordman,dining; Christian Grunder,financial operations/HR; Rod-ney Peek, utility maintenance.
10 years: Otis Suber, envi-ronmental services; FredaHayes, nursing; Nancy Bru-nette, environmental ser-vices; Nikki Smith, nursing;Georgia Roberts, dining;Linda Waters, nursing; Deb-bie Giddens, marketing.
15 years: Keisha Miller,nursing; Farrah Calloway,dining; Bobby Barnes, dining;Susan Snell, social services;Pamela Noah, dining.
20 years: Chip Davis, din-ing.
» Heidi M. Jameson hasbeen appointed vice presidentof marketing at MissionHealth. An award-winninghealth care professional,Jameson brings more than 20years of mar-keting andcommunica-tions experi-ence. She start-ed July 9. In hernew role, Jame-son will usemarketingstrategies toincrease mar-ket share, unify brand mes-saging and spread awarenessof services offered at MissionHealth.
» Sulaiman H. Sulaiman isthe new chief informationofficer and senior vice presi-dent at Mission Health. Sulai-man most recently held asimilar position with Cleve-land Clinic as chief informa-tion officer at Sheikh MedicalCity in Abu Dhabi, UnitedArab Emirates. Current CIOArlo Jennings will retire after25 years.
» The Board of Governorsof the N.C. Bar Associationelected Robert H. Haggard, ofThe Van Winkle Law Firm, asa new board member. He willserve a three-year term. Hag-gard, a partner since 1978,concentrates his legal practicein the areas of estate planningand probate law.
From staff reports
BUSINESS PEOPLE
RandyCutrara
Genie Orr
HeidiJameson
Cheryl Garcia
Gary Lux
a week, Jonathan kept challenging author-ity and covering his community, while Su-san held down the office.
It paid off earlier this year in the form oftwo national journalism awards that recog-nized the hard work and risk the couplefaced. The newspaper received the E.W.Scripps Award for Distinguished Service tothe First Amendment, beating entries byBloomberg News, which tracked the bil-lions spent to bail out Wall Street banks, andby OpenSecrets.org, which trailed the roleof money in politics.
The Yancey County News was alsoawarded the Ancil Payne Award for Ethicsin Journalism. In their praise, contestjudges wrote that taking on “the powersthat be in a rural community where citizensare afraid to speak out against local lawenforcement is very brave. To stake yourlivelihood and personal safety on it is aboveand beyond. This is an extraordinary ex-ample of public good.”
In his Main Street office, Austin talksabout his newspaper in more down-to-earthterms. His work has simply been “Journal-ism 101” in a small town where the existingnewspaper didn’t make waves. In a self-deprecating manner, he referred to his“pipsqueak paper” and said he’s simplydoing what newspapers should always do.
“We are willing to risk making peopleuncomfortable with the truth, and if youdon’t do that, I don’t think you deserve tocall yourself a newspaper,” Austin said.“And if the only thing that comes out of allthis is winning an award, we will havefailed.”
Born and bredJonathan and Susan grew up in Ashe-
ville. Jonathan Austin graduated from Rey-nolds High School and attended college butnever earned a degree. He started his news-paper career in Alabama and then bouncedaround, serving stints as a writer, copyeditor and news editor at the Henderson-ville Times-News, news editor at the Tusca-loosa News and senior editor, books editorand copy editor for CNN.com.
He worked as a writer and editor for theStatesville Record & Landmark for fiveyears before becoming editor at the NewsRecord & Sentinel in Madison County, aweekly newspaper owned by Gannett, theparent company of the Asheville Citizen-Times.
When Austin inherited land from hisfamily and moved to Burnsville, he decidedto return to the business he knew and loved— newspaper journalism.
Austin decided to start his own newspa-per. He lined up writers to pen columnsabout hunting and nutrition. He publishesreports about UARA racing and printsschool lunch schedules. Austin covers ev-erything from local county commissionermeetings to high school football. He printsobituaries for free — something most news-papers stopped doing years ago — andpublishes his 16-page newspaper everyThursday. A single copy costs 50 cents.
Most entrepreneurs would scoff at theidea of starting a newspaper these days.Newspapers and magazines have beencutting costs and laying off employees forthe past several years in response to a slug-gish economy and the growing popularity ofsmartphone and tablet technology.
Austin is undeterred.“Not everyone benefits from or has
access to technology, especially if you liveup a draw on Jack’s Creek,” Austin said,emphasizing his community’s mountainous
terrain.“I just like the confidence that you’ve
got something in print. It’s right here,” hesaid, “and I think there will be life for com-munity newspapers for many years tocome, especially in rural communities.”
The investigationAs Austin documented the state investi-
gation into allegations of voter fraud, healso began reporting on how the second-in-command at the Yancey County Sheriff’sDepartment was pawning county-ownedguns for personal gain.
The chief deputy, Tom Farmer, eventu-ally resigned. Farmer was arrested andcharged with felony embezzlement in thetheft of a handgun and with willfully failingto discharge his duties. Farmer recentlypleaded guilty to the misdemeanor andreceived a suspended sentence.
State investigators, meanwhile, re-mained quiet about the voting fraud in-vestigation. But they cooperated whenAustin requested copies of the documentsthey had seized, and he moved forward withhis own analysis. Austin discovered dis-turbing trends — first, that Yancey Countyrecorded 1,800 mail-in absentee ballots inthe 2010 election, a startling number for asmall county and a number exponentiallyhigher than other, larger Western NorthCarolina counties.
Austin also noted a large number ofabsentee ballots were sent in by people whohad been charged with various crimes inthe county and many of those ballots werewitnessed by Sheriff’s Department employ-ees. Some of those voters had their criminalcharges dropped or dismissed in latermonths, Austin’s reporting showed.
Sheriff Gary Banks won by 300 votes in2010. His father held the office before him,and Banks’ grandfather served as sheriff
before that. In all, a Banks has served assheriff in Yancey County for 30 years.
Gary Bartlett, director of the N.C. Boardof Elections, said the voter fraud investiga-tion continues.
“We’re working with the State Bureau ofInvestigation on this. We were hoping tohave the investigation closed a long timeago,” Bartlett said. “When one door closes,another one opens.”
Charles McCurry, chairman of the Yan-cey County Board of Elections, said hisboard is working with a new elections di-rector who started in March.
“We’re just ensuring our i’s are dottedand our t’s are crossed,” McCurry said.“We’re doing everything we can to ensurethere is no semblance of election fraud inthe county.”
Along the way, Austin said he’s had someadvertisers pull out of his newspaper. Hesaid he’s never been directly threatened buthas seen examples of indirect intimidation.He said he’s also received support, publiclyand privately.
Sharon Morrow, owner of Sharon’s Salonin Burnsville, said she opened her ownbeauty shop last year and liked workingwith Susan Austin.
“I really liked her, and I liked the factthat no matter who it was about, they re-ported the news,” Morrow said. “I just likethe fact that they report the news.”
Austin expresses some frustration at thelack of attention.
“If this happened in Asheville, somebodywould be doing something about it,” he said.“Hello — elections might be being stolen.”
Regardless, Austin said he’s committedto sticking with his publication, and he’sgrateful for the national recognition.
“I didn’t come here to be a rabble-rous-er,” he said. “I came here to do a communi-ty newspaper.”
NEWS: Austin stirsthings up in Yancey
Continued from Page E1
Jonathan Austin, along with his wife, Susan, have published the Yancey County Newsweekly newspaper for about a year and a half, and have already won two nationaljournalism awards.BILL SANDERS/[email protected]
