>> tammy: plus a plan for the empty haywood street lot. >> i'd like to see the public involved early in the process. now from western north carolina's news leader, this is news 13 at 6:00. >> larry: a breaking news update tonight. a plea deal is reached for a henderson county couple in the shooting death of a two-year-old. >> tammy: news 13's jerriri insco joins us live outside the henderson county courthouse. >> larry: jerrika,what was the original charge? >> jaclyn: the stepp couple was charged with involuntary manslaughter. authorities say the girl was

body by a shotgun. the stepps were sentenced to 45 days in jail, which was suspended. they must each pay a $200 fine and court costs. their guns have been forfeited to the sheriff's office. >> good resolution, i think. i think it's a just resolution and it allows both families to at least check this off of, you know, their obligations and to try to move forward. >> jerrika: i did reach out to abigail newman's parents. they had no comment at this time. reporting live outside the henderson county courthouse, jerrika insco, news 13. >> tammy: a controversial lot near the basilica of saint lawrence may now be coming closer to becoming a park. today council's planning and economic development committee voted to get public input on

kimberly king was at the meeting. presentation. >> kim: that's right, tammy. councilman cecil bathwell has been known as wanting to the sub committee that reviewed proposals today made it clear they are laying the ground work. since 2014, the haywood lot has sat empty. leased by a downtown builder. that lease up in july, precisely when changes may start. todd, asheville's planning and urban design director presented the planning and economic development committee with cities that held competitions to create a public park space. >> two examples of what other cities have done in terms of a

>> kim: vice chair and council member gwen. >> what i'd like to do is i'd like to form that stakeholder meeting today or very quickly. >> kim: cecil bathwell, not on the committee. >> i'd like to see the public involved early in the process to get ideas from the public. i think that once people see the place activated, they'll get more excited about the overall idea. >> kim: again, full council has not yet approved plans. chris of the asheville design center learned he could also be involved. >> it needs to be designed correctly in order to do that. you can't run a walker over grass. you need a hard surface. >> kim: back out live. you can see we are far from having a park here right now.

there is a builder that's leasing the space. as i mentioned in the story. but the lease is up come july. but it does appear that the park proposal is on the fast track. it looks like council will review what the subcommittee discussed today coming up in early february. reporting live off haywood road, kimberly king, news 13. >> tammy: an update tonight on an apartment proposal in south asheville that is now on hold. the developer, rusty pulliam talked to news 13 today about a new plan he has put together for a project on sweeten creek and mills gap road. he plans to break ground in 2018 and finish in 2020. pulliam believes this will improve infrastructure. >> when they see our plan they're going to see all the reasons why planning and zoning voted for it 6 to 1 is the fact

i'm proposing to do on this site is one of the lowest traffic . >> larry: while some of us are still shoveling snow, a mountain church was baling water. nearly the entire church was flooded with three inches of water. pastor malcolm mc carson says many people are saddened. but they're determined to make sure the church bounces back. >> something big is coming on the way as far as, you know, the act of god, you know. some insurance companies call that an act of god or whatever. lawyers do. so we're just looking to an act of god to make the building bigger and better. >> larry: this sunday's service

next door. we have rain and some of that could be freezing rain. >> jason: yeah, that's right. i think the western counties have a better chance for it. leicester carpet sales news13 sky cam network. the rain has reached you in black mountain. that is not snow melt. there it is. the rain now on the roadways. there it is on radar. decent swath of rain. breaking up now. very light. poor visibility. light rain and moderate rain. very cold. even with snow flakes mixed in, in higher elevations. it will be out of here tomorrow. you can see some of the rain totals already getting close to half an inch in andrews. temperature down to 38 in burnsville. we drop from 50 to 44 in asheville. still 50s over the upstate. there's that freezing rain advisory out.

by nine. rain still falling in places. i'll show you the big changes, though, as we get in to the weekend. >> tammy: a popular part of the blue ridge parkway remains closed indefinitely. the commuter stretch running between highway 70 and highway 191 is still under 4 to 6 inches of heavy wet snow. they say crews will work every day including weekends to get that snow cleared as quickly as possible. no word yet on when that will be. >> all that freezing that we get, or all the thawing that we get freezes up underneath. with a really shady section road, it takes a while. >> tammy: the parkway is closed to commuters but visitors are still welcome to come and sled and ski on the snow nearby. >> larry: in less than an hour, the north carolina utilities commission will hold a hearing on duke's proposed power plant for the asheville area.

the site of that meeting. who plans to speak tonight, aaron? >> aaron: aaron, environmental activists already showing up. we have the greenies standing over here. duke wants to build a new natural gas plant. it would replace the current coal plant. it's expected to cost more than a billion dollars. duke's proposal would double the output. people are questioning the need to produce that much activity. an environmental group is also here to express their concerns. >> i would expect more creativity from duke around solar and renewable energy. and i'm hoping for that. >> aaron: people can send comments to the utility commission through february.

adelson, news 13. >> tammy: many waynesville parents want to draw attention to the possible closure of central elementary school. the haywood county school board is considering closing the school after falling enrollment and a more than $2 million budget shortfall. parents plan an awareness walk. the walk starts at 5:30 followed by the public hearing by the school at 7 o'clock. it definitely takes a toll when i can't be here. >> larry: the down side of snow days for parents. how it's hitting them hard in the wallets. our cost to process remains the same but the value of the material to offset that cost is much lower. >> tammy: and the potential for a recycling crisis. why the economics of sorting and separating paper and plastic is

that's next in reality check. >> tammy: continuing coverage tonight on trash piling up at a local recycling center. >> larry: news 13's frank fraboni investigates in tonight's reality check. >> tammy: frank, what's happening to the recycling industry? >> frank: people who sort and recycle those materials are going broke. the market for those materials has fallen through the floor thanks to cheap oil and a crumbleing economy in china. in the asheville area, more people than ever are recycling. part of the reason of this massive mound of recyclable material. >> we're estimating probably 3 to 400 tons. >> frank: over the past ten years, the amount of recyclables has grown by five times. sorting and separating 12 to 14 tons an hour. but in recent months, the markets for these recycled

>> markets are at an all-time low. i think they said this morning that crude oil hit a low in the past 12 years. >> frank: the chair of unca's economic department. it's now cheaper to make it new than it is to reuse it. >> the way to make the bottles is not with recycled bottles, it's with virgin resin. >> frank: much of this used to be shipped to china. >> the chinese economy is not doing that well right now. it's really slowing down considerably. >> frank: putting further strains on american recyclers. >> it makes it relatively inexpensive for us to buy things abroad but it makes it expensive for people in other countries to

including scrap metal, including newspaper from us. >> frank: some local recycling in greenville is one plant shutting down. with recyclers shutting down, kirby is now having to ship overflow material to recyclers away. >> our cost to process remains the same. but the volume of the material to offset that cost is much lower. >> frank: despite the back up are here, kirby is confident the problem is only short term. >> we're working additional hours to try to get material inside of our building. an overwhelming amount of recyclables that came in this christmas season. >> frank: he says kirby still

separated recyclables, just at depressed prices. if you have a story, you can write us at realitycheck. >> larry: while snow days are piling up, so are some working parents' concerns. >> tammy: we talked with parents who say they love being home with their children but really can't afford to miss anymore days of work. >> i love spending time with her. i really do. but not being able to work, it's hit hard. >> for a small business, that makes it a little tough. it's not impossible but tough. >> larry: both eric and rhonda are hoping for a sunny and warmer forecast. >> tammy: well the sun is on the way. but i think it may be not in the near future. not tomorrow. i don't know. let's ask jason. >> jason: well there will be some sunshine.

there and i'm right here. >> jason: it's okay. we have to deal with freezing rain tonight. i'll show you where next. 27 on the low this morning. no rain. but we will see additional rainfall this evening. so no measurable rain in airport. it will get icy for some.

detail now your news 13 skywatch weather. >> jason: not a very nice commute home. light rain falling. it is cold rain, too. poor visibility. slow down and use your headlights. it's dark enough to do that now. south and west. we have bands working over rabun county, macon county. some of that is headed toward transylvania. robbinsville, toccoa.

it's not moving quickly. how about this view from mount pisgah. beautiful stuff here. this is cold mountain off there in the distance. 38 degrees now on the top of the mountain. here we go, we're socked in now with the low clouds and fog. 30% chance of showers returning tomorrow. dryer still friday, saturday, sunday. 10% chance of any rain on thursday. 44 degrees right now. it is raining. light rain. north wind at 6. chill. not pretty. here's that cold front coming through now. the rain really shuts off pretty quickly here. north. this high pressure will kind of weaken somewhat in to friday as

gulf that won't bring us any problems. but another system will bring clouds and gusty wind. along with chillier weather. midnight, lining up showers. moving them out of here by day break. the wind will start to pick up in the afternoon out of the north and west about 15 to 20. by the lunch hour, we're already getting in to sunshine in many mountain locations. it will take probably until the early afternoon for you in the upstate to get back in to sunshine. that sunshine wins out again. half inch some places south and west. already 4/10 of an inch in andrews. this is not a very soaking system. there will be rain but it won't be terribly heavy. below freezing tonight in some of the northern mountains. watch out here. avery, mitchell, yancey, haywood, swain county. you're all under a freezing rain advisory. tomorrow's high temperatures on

low to mid 40s for the french broad river valley. over towards waynesville. look for the wind to pick up, too. morning clouds and temperatures will get back in to the 40s. you're looking at 40s, too, mostly in the foothills. our temperatures will get a little warmer thursday. colder again friday. before we really warm up here. spring-like temperatures saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday. all in the 60s. we'll take that. in the upstate, you're also looking at a nice change for the weekend. low to mid 60s with the pick day sunday. all that snow will melt pretty quickly. >> tammy: western north carolina released its football schedule for next year.

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>> stan: the unc asheville women's team playing for first place tonight against presbyterian. those two teams are tied with gardner webb and liberty. four-way tie for first place. 14 and 4. kick off at 7 at kimmel.

baseball getting close. unc asheville's joe techen can't wait. he's been named big south pre-season all conference second team. bulldogs hit the diamond for the first time this season. western carolina's 2016 football schedule is out. two games against division i teams and a possible game at a race track. september 10th they're home against gardner webb. and then this one might be at bristol motor speedway. october 8th they host wofford. they go on the road to mark mercer mercer. november 12th at furman. then they finish the regular

hope for the playoffs the next week, the 26th. prep basketball affected. their game is postponed tonight. christ school at aca. they start at 7:30. we'll have highlights for that. regular return. he had 21. brandon ingram answers here. he had 19 points. devils played hard. they just keep living it down. they're undermanned. duke only played six guys. they lose. coach k says he can't be upset. he said miami is just better. they're senior dominated. >> larry: it's just not like duke.

>> stan: they had a couple of injuries this year. >> larry: all right. >> jason: well it's kind of tough to be out right now weather wise. we have a lot of rain. a chance of rain tomorrow. then we're back to the 50s thursday. look at the payoff. the weekend 60s. >> larry: for more local news, turn on over to news 13 on my40. >> tammy: thanks for joining us, everybody. we'll see you tonight at 10 and