So many blog readers are curious about Steve Shiver, former Homestead mayor, lobbyist, former county manager, lobbyist and former developer of affordable housing. Shiver was a big actor in the dramatic trashing of Homestead and South Dade, doing the work of the Latin Builders, the bankers like Bill Losner and Bob Eppling, all in the service of the kind of low cost, platted subdivisions that are at the heart of the mortgage foreclosure and housing market crisis.
When community activists (exactly the type of individuals who Rudy Giuliani belittled at the Republican National Convention last week) tried to object to the horrendous growth infecting their communities in South Dade, it was Steve Shiver and his developer friends who shut down public processes or otherwise manipulated zoning hearings to make sure that whatever the developers wanted, they got -- taxpayers are stuck with the consequences.
Politics is the same everywhere, and likely the same story in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. I picture it as a bucolic place where Steve Shiver has retreated to formulate an escape from his past: this time, an amusement park owns and operates with former Miami Chamber of Commerce bigwig, Alan Harper. (Maybe our readers can advise us if any other Miami developers are involved in Maggie Valley as limited partners.)
We have only good thoughts for the people of Maggie Valley. And we do think it is important for Maggie Valley to know exactly who has waltzed into their midst. It is also valuable for Miamians to know where "special interests" go once they have finished despoiling South Florida.
Here's some August 14 news from Maggie Valley: "Ghost Town gears up: Two key pieces of the Maggie Valley amusement park Ghost Town in the Sky are just about ready to open. The park’s Cliffhanger roller coaster, formerly the Red Devil, is ready to thrill riders after $6 million in repairs in upgrades, according to the Haywood County News. Perched on the side of Buck Mountain, it’s one of the most unique roller coasters around. The park’s incline railway should be ready to carry visitors to the top of the mountain in about a month. The park closed in 2002, but opened last May under new ownership."
Hmm. A $6 million rollercoaster: did it indeed open, yet? Would love to know the details on that.
A recent Maggie Valley reader of Eyeonmiami suggests the opening was hype.
"You asked how is Shiver's amusement park doing? Well the incline railroad doesn't work and the roller coaster doesn't work. The biggest draws to the park are the gun fights, which by the way are very good and the beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. We in the Maggie Valley community can only hope that Steve Shiver's intentions are to keep Ghost Town in the Sky an amusement park and that he doesn't have an ulterior motive to run the park in the ground (which he seems to be doing a good job of) and then develop the land with multi-million dollar homes. That's not what this community needs. This community doesn't need to be a little Miami. Those of you that live in Miami and want to get away from it come here. Keep your Miami ideas in Miami and come to the mountains to get a bit of fresh air and small town life. From what I have read and heard about Steve Shiver, only time will tell if his intentions are for the good of the community or for the good of Steve Shiver!"
Dear Maggie Valley Reader: the good news is that forewarned is forearmed. The bad news is that you better not let Steve Shiver within half an inch of your local government or you will find Maggie Valley carpeted with cookie cutter homes for which there is no demand, no market, and someone will walk away with fees and commissions and payoffs that created the debt. That's how it happened in South Dade, and some of the beneficiaries walked away with millions and are laughing all the way from their Bertram yachts in the Bahamas.
Maggie Valley Ghost Town in the Sky readers: keep your comments coming!
14 comments:
Had a chance to ride on Allen Harper's Smokey Mountain Railroad to Dillsborough N.C. Nice trip. Whether you're in Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Franklin, Cashiers, or Highlands, every other license plate is from Florida (mostly Dade). I don't think Steve is lonely for South Floridian company.
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What happened at Shiver's N.C. court hearing? The author insists on not letting Shiver near the Maggie Valley governments, great idea. Send him to Napoleon's place of exile as they both had certain similarities while in power.
How could Shiver run it into the ground if it was closed up 3 years before he bought it?
An Open Letter to Steve Shiver,
Hello.
I'm a resident of Haywood Co. and have been for all my life. I'm 61, and I have gotten to know "Cowboy Tommy" very well in the three years since he moved here. Plus, I've been observing what's been going on with Ghost Town for the last two years. I've watched Tommy come around town very often after work looking very frustrated and embittered. I too can attest to the flying rumors that Ghost Town phase II is a real estate scam. Such scuttlebutt circulated through the Valley even before the place reopened. I worked at Ghost Town in the late 1960's, I loved it then and I love it now. I'm appalled by the seeming notion that R.B. Coburn's legacy and by proxy, Maggie Valley's legacy, is in the hands of a seemingly corrupt neo-con.
First off, to address you directly, I think you're a liar. You're not a cowboy. I think that you are Shiver himself, and, if you are so delusional that you think you are a streetfighter, I hope you have insurance. From what I understand, Tommy is a dangerous martial artist with a lot of streetfighting experience on the streets of Atlanta, Ga. Whereas you seem to me a milquetoast nebbish with a Napoleon complex who hires out lawyers to fight his battles. If you aren't Shiver and you actually are a gunfighter, why don't you go to the Apache Kid and answer up for posting blogs here in his name, and THEN let's see who gets their ass kicked. THAT my friend is slander. Not of me or you, but of the Apache Kid. I don't believe any cowboy is writing these blogs. Somehow, I don't think that they would appreciate someone speaking in their name. As far as I know, Tommy is still on good terms with all of them and that is likely to be confirmed.
Plus, IF you are a cowboy and RB finds out you made that post in his name YOU will be fired if not tarred and feathered and run out on a rail down Buck Mtn, I'll betcha.
Also, slander and defamation, libel or vilification, legally defined, are comments which are 'intended statements of fact' either spoken or in a fixed medium which are maliciously intended and are provably NOT TRUE. Slander is also very difficult to prosecute if the plaintiff is or has been an elected official or held an appointed public office, thereby qualifying him as a 'limited public figure', such as you. So knock yourself out hambone.
Another important aspect of defamation is the difference between fact and opinion. Statements made as "facts" are frequently actionable defamation. Statements of opinion or pure opinion or PREFACED AS OPINION are not actionable. In order to win damages in a libel case, the plaintiff must first show that the statements were "statements of fact or mixed statements of opinion and fact" and second that these statements were false. Some U.S. statutes preserve historical common law exceptions to the defense of truth to libel actions. These exceptions were for statements "tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead" or "expose the natural defects of one who is alive." 'Natural defects' , in this case, would be revealing that a person had a third nipple, a mental illness, or a handicap which would, being revealed, harm or lessen public opinion about such a person. Nowhere have I seen Tommy make such an error. His critique seems to oriented on being professionally disgruntled and is limited to professional opinions of others in performance of their jobs, which are of a highly public nature. As I can see, he is exercising his full right to freely express his opinions and observations in an editorial manner in an open forum.
Tommy also informs me that you have retained a lawyer: Stephen J. Martin, to harass and threaten him with a slander suit. I stand here saying that is frivolous and malicious and you have probably not fully informed Mr. Martin of all the facts at hand. Keep it up.
However, you sir, by your apparent leveling third party accusations at Tommy of sexual misconduct, are committing actual slander and libel of a malicious nature by falsely reporting a crime. To my knowledge, no record or evidence exists regarding any kind of sexual misconduct or a past history of such. Furthermore, you or agents of yours seem to be authoring posts claiming to be another person, that too is as actionable as anything that Tommy has said, even more so.
Most likely, you're Shiver himself, attempting to author an incompetent propaganda campaign. I believe you would have a great deal of trouble proving the substance of all of these blog entries by all these people on you are false. The only thing that I see being stated here about Ghost Town and its future are opinions, and there are repeated rumors/allegations which have been common knowledge in the park and the valley all season and lingering from last year. Repeating such rumors and prefacing it AS RUMORS is not slander. What is NOT a rumor is that you were arrested for DUI and Indecent Exposure and can't drive and there is a trial pending and the press here in NC is dying to get a hold of you.
Now YOU resort to actual slander of 'Cowboy Tommy' and you wont even use his full name. Plus, you are too cowardly to say who you are too. So the whole shebang lacks credibility from the getgo. Also, every blogger here would also be a party to said case, including the blog moderator and whoever hosts this site. The fact that a two year thread of critique exists is proof positive that you don't have a leg to stand on regarding slander. However YOU seem to be committing slander by authoring and posting blogs and FALSELY ascribing authorship to known parties. I certainly hope you do have a lawyer.
Also, if Tom sucks so bad, why has his performance in the movie been so well received? And...if you were in the movie, what role did you play?
See, Maggie Valley, Waynesville and Haywood Co. is a small community of about 60-80,000 people. Its not like South Dade and Miami, where you can commit fraud and hide like a cockroach scurrying into a large population of millions of people. Here in Haywood Co. everybody knows everybody, and everyone talks. You can't pee in a parking lot drunkenly while shouting your imagined superiority, and not expect the locals to talk about it. You cant toy with people's livelihoods with impunity and expect them not to react to you and report it locally to their friends and neighbors. In my opinion, Tommy's invective towards you was ill-timed and unprofessional, but it came from a place of absolutely justifiable indignation in response to your apparent ignominious mistreatment of him.
As I understand it and have been informed, Tommy DID call you and apologize like a man and asked you for his job back, and you said that you were ok with it if the Kid was ok with it. However, you apparently then went to the Kid and told him that under no circumstances was he to be rehired. That seems rather disingenuous at the end of the day. If you are such a badass, then why couldn't you just tell Tommy no right then? These seem to me to be the actions of a liar and a coward.
Tommy says he was fired because he stood up to you over his comic book, which got great press and reviews and even better peer review and a smoking deal from the printer to boot; Ghost Town stood to profit six figures or more for a branded product that they had to pay nothing to produce, all you had to do was take a meeting and get an ad sold on the back cover to cover the printing costs. Was that beneath you? And you burned it down. Why? Maybe because Tommy didn't fit into your narrow, neo-con worldview. Or maybe it was because it wasn't your idea and you stood to make no personal gain off of it. If you ask me, Tommy may have grounds to sue you for negligence, seeing as how he and the other gunfighters have been cheated out of their royalties by your direct negligence and/or incompetence.
Also, I might add: Hank Woodburn (Owner of Ghost Town) and Robert Bradley (Entertainment Director of Ghost Town) gave Tommy permission to begin this book before you even lived here or were employed by Ghost Town, and monies have exchanged hands regarding its production. Your authority in this matter is likely to be non-existent or superseded. Written and oral precedence exists to prove these things and you and Mr. Martin will be quite embarrassed should a court case be brought forward, not to mention the media coverage on the case which I ASSURE YOU WILL BE BROUGHT TO BEAR SHOULD YOU PROCEED. Anonymous blogging is a lighting rod of Free Speech controversy these days. I'd wager Tommy would be glad to serve himself up to the media for such a purpose.
Very soon now, the local news media IS going to be privately informed about your history and will likely launch a professional, legitimate journalistic investigation of you and your past financial malfeasance. I'd like to see you sue a major news carrier for slander. Ha!
Here is another ugly rumor: your father paid for your appointment to Ghost Town, who is a key investor in the park. The only reason you seem to continue to hold your position is the leverage that money creates. it certainly has nothing to do with the 'fine job' you are doing.
Oh and folks: lets not forget another gunfighter who got fired this year: Stoney. Apparently Stoney ran the campaign in Homestead against Shiver in his mayorial election. Within two weeks of ol Mr. S.S. being appointed to GT, Stoney got fired for a minor transgression which has been committed by many others and completely overlooked. Namely, loudly expressing frustration at perceived managerial incompetence.
It seems that, in like manner to our current presidential administration, you would hire and fire according to your political and class distinctions, all the while omitting considerations like talent, ability and dedication. Maybe that's why so many of your projects seem to have failed over the years. Sometimes its better to have competent people working for you who might be a little different and disagreeable somehow rather than a bunch of grinning yes-men with their heads up their asses. Hell, with a record like yours, you should run for president. You and Dubya seem to have a lot in common. Now it seems you have dismissed another asset to Ghost Town: Kevin Bailey, the General Mgr. I'm sure that won't sit well locally as well, it must be lonely up there on that mountain, considering how you have worn out your welcome in the Valley.
Ghost Town in the Sky is a wonderful place being ran by great people who want to see it do well and from what I can tell are dedicated to its success. Anyone who says that Tommy wasn't among these people and was not fully dedicated to that end is a stinking liar. It seems a shame that such a valuable institution would be in the hands of a seemingly arrogant and incompetent pinhead.
I also hear how you declare to everyone what a pious Christian you are, that, sir, is the most monstrous hypocrisy of all.
This post is an editorial opinion. I in no way represent it as absolute facts, only the substance of my informed opinions.
Thank You.
The website says the roller coaster is opening soon. Knowing what the community knows about him, can you imagine riding on a roller coaster (on a mountain top!) that was maintained by Steve Shiver?
Wow. Nice post from Maggie Valley.
Interesting.
Too bad we don't know the rest of the story.
i did NOT write the above I POSTED IT from another related blog. It was too interesting to not be posted on this more current blog.
By JOAN FLEISCHMAN
jfleischman@MiamiHerald.com
Former Miami-Dade County Manager Steve Shiver and wife Cirenia ''Cire'' Andino-Shiver are separated after a two-year marriage. They plan to divorce.
''She's a wonderful lady,'' says he. ``Just two different paths of life.''
''Best for both of us,'' says she. ``We're still very good friends.''
Steve, 42, and Cire, 47, met at County Hall -- she was a special-events manager while he was top exec. They wed in Las Vegas on May 18, 2006, and lived on his two-acre Redland estate, opposite the popular Knaus Berry Farm.
That same year, Steve invested in a company that owns Ghost Town in the Sky, a 100-acre Wild West theme park in Maggie Valley, N.C., in the Smoky Mountains. Among the partners: Allen Harper, 63, chairman emeritus of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell and owner of three railroads, including the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.
Last December, Steve took a larger equity position in the company -- and a more active role. He became prez/CEO of Ghost Town Holdings, which owns the park and another 150-plus acres. It suited him personally: daughter Ashley, 15, and son Ryan, 13, live in Weaverville, N.C., with mother Sheri, who is remarried. They're now a 30- to 40-minute car ride away. ``I really want to be closer to my children, to watch my kids grow up and be part of their lives.''
On Dec. 26, Steve left for North Carolina for six weeks. The Homestead native has been back to Miami just three times since, the last in May, when he moved his belongings. ``I love the small-town environment.''
Cire, a PR consultant who has a 24-year-old son in Miami, says North Carolina is not for her. ``I'm a city girl.''
Steve put the Redland house on the market -- for $1.7 million. It has five bedrooms, a movie theater, gym, pool and three-car garage.
He now lives in a mountainside home on park grounds. ''I'm getting in touch with my environmental side.'' He oversees budgeting and master planning of the park, which has rides, a chair lift, five restaurants and a 500-seat country music hall.
Future development could include a ''water park, retail outlets, condominiums and potential home sites,'' according to a news release. But, Steve insists, ``we don't want to condominium-ize.''
Last month, police arrested Steve on a charge of driving while impaired. He is due in court on Aug. 5. ''An unfortunate mistake,'' he says. ''I take my licks, and keep on ticking.'' Neither Steve nor Cire has gotten around to filing divorce papers. Both say it will be amicable. Besides, they have a prenup.
____________________________________
Attention: Maggie Valley!
Watch your land!
Shiver is a weasel supported in Homestead by the scumbags he helped destroy the city. He and his associates are crooked and he has no success, he has failed at all of his endeavors including as a husband twice, businessman, politician, lobbyist and county administrator. His success is being a thief, a liar and a manipulator. Epling, Losner and all of the rest tried to hoist him on their shoulders as the second coming. Homestead was the most corrupt city in Florida from 1997 thru 2007. Millions are missing, Steirheim came in and righted the ship in 2001-2002, but since mayor Shiver was peter principled into the county manager's office the group Shiver left behind followed their former mayor's practices of shakedowns and graft even expanding their individual roles. They raided every account in the city rewarding themselves and the close circle of perverts and alcoholics Shiver brought to the party. Good luck in Waynesville with this guy. Homestead is now the a-hole of Florida, crackheads, whores, section eight and criminals abound. Very surprising he left all of that splendor as the story goes he was into that scene.
The Beatles were psychic with Fool On The Hill some 40 years ago. Shiver's theme song, use the Sergio Mendes version, it will remind him of Miami.
I believe every person saying something negative about steve shiver needs to concentrate on their own life. If you have enough time to comment on a man that you don't know on a personal level there is something wrong. I am very close to him and think he is a great, honest person. "He that is without sin may cast the first sin." You say that he is trying to turn Maggie Valley into a smaller miami, let me tell you growing up in homestead is much different than growing up in miami, and homestead may be changing, good thing he got out of there. His recent business moves have been in the best interest of turning the park around from all the damage Kevin Bailey and other truely corrupt men. Steve is only trying to correct other's mistakes. In my opinion you are all pompous redneck assholes.
I love you Steve.
Ghost Town amusement park in Maggie Valley, N.C. files for Ch. 11
Posted on March 13, 2009 11:45 by Andy Peters
One of the latest bankruptcy casualties of the recession is the Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.
And the bankruptcy may provide a legal client for an Atlanta-area company that’s a large creditor.
On Wednesday, Ghost Town Partners LLC of Maggie Valley, N.C., filed for Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Ghost Town listed $13 million in assets and $12.3 million in liabilities.
Westall, Gray, Connolly & Davis partner David G. Gray in Asheville, N.C., is debtor counsel. McGuireWoods partner Robert Pryor in Charlotte is counsel to creditor BB&T Corp.
BB&T, of Winston-Salem, N.C., objected to Ghost Town’s motion to approve a super-priority, secured, post-petition credit line of $100,000 from Resurrection Partners LLC. In its motion asking for approval of the credit line, Ghost Town said it wouldn’t be able to open for the 2009 season, unless it receives the credit line, because it won’t have the funds to meet payroll.
BB&T has a claim of about $10 million against Ghost Town, according to a court filing.
Industrial Service Group of Dallas, Ga., is listed as being owed $316,217. Industrial Service Group had performed maintenance work on an incline railway at the park, according to the Smoky Mountain News. No attorney had filed a notice of appearance on behalf of Industrial Service Group as of Friday.
Ghost Town in the Sky re-opened in May 2007 after being closed for five years. “Rides don’t work, costs have piled up, ticket sales fell short of expectations and there have been disagreements over the best way to promote Ghost Town as a tourist destination,” said the Smoky Mountain News, a Waynesville, N.C. newspaper. A group of investors bought the amusement park for $5.18 million.
To everyone spending their time trashing a man you don't even know, it must suck to go through life with so much hatred in your heart. I feel sorry for you.
I'm not even going to address the rediculous accusations, all I have to say is that Steve bought the park unaware of all the financial problems it was already facing. Kevin Bailey, the park manager at the time, was not qualified to control the parks day to day finances.
Steve truly loved ghost town and Maggie Valley. There's not much you can do when you're on a sinking ship, you can stay on board or jump. He spent every dime he had trying to keep that park open, he never abandoned ship.
On a personal note, I am so grateful the opportunity arose for my dad, Steve Shiver, to invest in ghost town in the sky. I moved there years before he did and he couldn't be apart from my brother and I any longer. Maybe that's why he was so quick to invest his entire life savings. Either way, it was a blessing from god that this investment opportunity came at such a crucial time in my life, a teenage girl needs her father.
PS: You really think, with the abundance of undeveloped land in western NC, a successful real estate investor would buy an entire theme park and run it into the ground, all for a housing project? Come on people, use your brains here.
The problem is we all do know your father . And what we didn't know his x wife Cire was glad to blabber all over town.
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