In this Issue of Hey Cherokee County…

✅ 'One of the Most Corrupt Counties in Western North Carolina.' Judith Bodley Has Lived Here Her Whole Life — and She's Had Enough.

✅ Andrews Residents Invited to Meet With Designers Working on Downtown Streetscape Improvements

Cherokee County Events

October 22nd

October 22nd-31st

October 23rd

October 24th

October 31st

October 31st

November 6th

November 9th

November 21st

Publisher’s Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series based on an interview with Judith Bodley, candidate for the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners District 3 seat.

Judith Bodley grew up in a log cabin in Marble. Not a restored one. Not a charming vacation rental with a bear carving on the mailbox. An actual log cabin that her ancestors had built, added to over generations, and filled — wall to wall — with bookshelves and books. Her grandfather had been a teacher.

She would eventually become a registered dietitian, earn her credential through Western Carolina University's master's program — one of five students accepted out of a class of hundreds — run a restaurant, manage a federally audited food service department for a Cherokee County charter school, and now run for public office. None of that was supposed to happen.

"In my family, and in many families from the mountains, it was never proposed to me that I could go on to college," she said. "As a girl, we were just expected to grow up, get married, and have kids. And we did."

She raised her children on that same family land in Marble — land that has been in her family for close to 200 years. She made bread from scratch. She raised chickens, kept a garden, churned her own butter, got raw milk from a neighbor with cows. And when she wasn't working, she mostly stayed home with her kids. She was, in her own words, a very private person.

That description still fits. She just doesn't think wanting a private life is a reason to stay on the sidelines. 

Bodley is running for Cherokee County Commissioner in District 3. She is a Democrat in a county that has returned an all-Republican board for years. She is also 70-something, running for public office for the first time, and doing it because she walked into a county commissioners’ meeting a few years ago and came out the other side “appalled” by what she saw.

She started attending the meetings after the county rejected $50 million in grant money that had been awarded for a new consolidated school. She wanted to understand it.

"Instead of sitting home and complaining, I need to go to the meetings," she told herself. "I need to become more informed."

What she found when she got there was more than a school funding dispute.

At one of those meetings, the board presented a letter they intended to send to Washington indicating that Cherokee County was on board with selling off its public lands to private entities. All five commissioners voted in favor of it. There was almost no public discussion — none that Bodley, sitting in the audience, was able to hear. The only comment she caught from the board came from one commissioner: Think of the tax base.

She was in shock.

"I love this county," she said. "I was born here. My family's been here for almost 200 years. One of the things I love about it is that we still have our wild places."

She thought about Lake Chatuge, the way it's been built up so thoroughly around the shoreline that there are almost no places left where the public can access the water. She does not want that for Lake Hiwassee.

After the meeting, she started asking questions. She went directly to some of the commissioners and asked what they imagined would happen to the land once it moved to private ownership. One of them told her he believed it would be returned to the families it had been taken from — families who had been bought out by eminent domain when the government came in to build the dams, nearly 90 years ago.

"That was so uninformed that I was appalled," she said, "at the level of understanding of the people that were running our county."

Bodley and other citizens organized. They pushed back, made their opposition loud and clear, and eventually got the letter rescinded.

"It just showed me that citizens getting involved can make a difference in our community," she said.

One local leader had already told her, more than once, that she should run for office. But she didn't think she was intelligent enough for the job. She later changed her mind.

"I thought, if this is the level of understanding of the people on our board — I feel like I can do better than that," Bodley said. 

What brought her to the race, she says, comes down to two things: the school system, and the protection of Cherokee County's public lands. But underneath both of them — threading through the school grant money that got rejected, the public lands vote, and the lack of any land use regulation, which allowed cryptocurrency operations to move in next to residential neighborhoods before anyone could stop them — she sees the same problem.

"I've been here long enough to know that our county has a history, with many in the state, of being one of the most corrupt counties in Western North Carolina," she said. "I want to see that end. I am so tired of that — with decisions being made so that it benefits an individual or a group of people."

She doesn’t paint every past commissioner with the same brush and acknowledges good people have served. But she says there have been too many who looked out for their own interests and the interests of their friends, and that the pattern has real consequences — not just in how decisions get made, but in how the state sees Cherokee County when it comes time to compete for grants and resources.

"We've got to get rid of that reputation if we want to work with the state," she said. "We want them to know we're working for the best of this county, not for ourselves."

Bodley said she has no intentions to sell the property that has been in her family for 200 years. She has no real estate holdings she intends to move, and no financial position that stands to shift based on how she votes.

"I will not benefit financially from being on this board," she said. "None of the decisions I make will be based on, ‘Well, maybe I could sell my piece of land — maybe my holdings could benefit if I don't do this or if I do that.’ And unfortunately, I think that's the way things have been run up to this point."

Tomorrow: the issues Bodley says Cherokee County has been putting off for years and what she plans to do about them if she wins the District 3 seat in November.

Paid for by Judith Bodley, candidate for the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners District 3 seat. Hey Cherokee County accepts paid political advertising. Candidates and campaigns may contact us for rates and availability.

Residents and business owners who have ideas about the future of downtown Andrews will have an opportunity Tuesday evening to share them directly with the designers helping develop the town's streetscape improvement plan.

The Town of Andrews, in partnership with the Appalachian Design Center, is hosting a community input session Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at The Vale, located at 992 Main Street in Andrews.

The informal gathering will give residents an opportunity to meet with designers, ask questions and discuss potential improvements to Main Street and the gateways into town.

There will be no formal presentation or scheduled meeting. Participants can stop by at any time during the session, and light refreshments will be provided.

The event follows the Andrews Streetscape Improvement Survey, which closed Oct. 7. That survey asked residents and visitors to identify what they value about downtown, what they believe needs improvement and which features they would like to see added.

Among the issues addressed in the survey were pedestrian safety, sidewalk conditions, street crossings, parking, landscaping, lighting and public spaces.

The survey also asked participants to consider potential trade-offs, including whether they would support removing some on-street parking spaces to make room for benches, plantings or outdoor seating.

Other possible improvements included shade trees, public art, murals, bicycle racks, trash and recycling bins, wayfinding signs and outdoor dining areas.

Tuesday's session provides an opportunity to build on that earlier feedback through conversations with the designers working on the project.

The streetscape initiative is part of Andrews' broader downtown improvement efforts as the town works through its five-year Strategic Economic Development Plan and prepares for planned resurfacing of Main Street by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

The Appalachian Design Center, a program of MountainTrue, is assisting with the project by providing volunteer engineering and design services at no cost to the town.

The planning effort focuses on downtown streetscape features such as sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, landscaping, seating and gateway entrances rather than redesigning the roadway itself.

Public input is intended to help guide the development of streetscape concepts, which are expected to be presented for additional community feedback.

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