Avery/Banner Elk Chamber of Commerce.

Both the Avery/Banner Elk Chamber of Commerce and its best-known event--the Woolly Worm Festival, which draws 20,000 to Banner Elk each fall -- will survive, even though the chamber lost a third of its budget when Avery County commissioners abolished the 3% hotel-room tax. "The chamber's alive and well," reports President Herb Isaac, who admits he's troubled by the $150,000 hit on the organization's budget...