Holly Kays

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The number of coronavirus cases among Jackson County residents has jumped to 15, up from five April 24. 

Comment

Continued testing by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Swain and Graham counties, the tribe’s Public Health and Human Services Department announced this weekend. These results mark the first positive cases in either county.

Comment

Spring is in the air these days, but so is uncertainty as the COVID-19 crisis continues and millions of Americans are unemployed, working reduced hours or simply adjusting to life under a quarantine with no clear end in sight. 

It’s a cocktail that even has folks who have always considered themselves to be brown thumbs thinking about starting a vegetable garden. A lot of people have a lot of extra time on their hands these days, and given that every trip to the grocery store now feels like a journey to the last frontier, the idea of being able to walk outside and pick as many tomatoes as you want is certainly attractive. 

Comment

The defendants in a lawsuit filed in response to the death of Jackson County Detention Center inmate Melissa Rice have submitted their response to the complaint against them, denying several key facts contained in the original lawsuit and asking that the case be dismissed completely. 

Comment

The cumulative cost of environmental rehabilitation and sound abatement at the Southwestern Community College shooting range will top $1 million after the Jackson County commissioners voted 4-1 April 7 to spend $383,000 on the final stage of the project. 

Comment

As the COVID-19 crisis roared to life in North Carolina, local governments across the state joined countless other organizations and individuals in clearing previously planned meetings from their calendars. 

Comment

The wildly popular synchronous firefly viewing event in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been canceled this year as efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 continue.

Comment

Tremont Institute is working through quarantine to connect people and nature using its website and social media channels.

Comment

The Blue Ridge Parkway has announced additional closures as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Comment

For farmers and agriculture businesses across Western North Carolina, spring is the time to plan and plant for the green season ahead, but uncertainty cultivated by the COVID-19 crisis is complicating that process, often in devastating ways. 

Comment

Webster Enterprises has long used the production of medical supplies as a vehicle for its main mission, vocational rehabilitation for people with disabilities and disadvantages. 

Comment

During a special-called session April 9, the Cherokee Tribal Council unanimously passed a resolution designed to help small businesses operating on the Qualla Boundary survive the COVID-19 crisis. 

Comment

Proactive testing by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has revealed community transmission of COVID-19 in Jackson County.

Comment

Camping is no longer allowed on the Pisgah National Forest following an order enacted April 13 as part of ongoing efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Comment

A burn ban enacted April 3 on 32 Western North Carolina counties has been lifted following heavy rainfall this weekend.

Comment

Two full-time Jackson County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, the Jackson County Department of Public Health learned today.

Comment

 

Harrah’s Cherokee Casinos announced April 1 that its COVID-19-induced closure would extend through the end of the month, and that same day Principal Chief Richard Sneed issued his own announcements about changes to compensation for tribal employees in the weeks ahead.

Comment

The COVID-19 pandemic hit us all differently. For some of us, it blew to pieces what was otherwise a normal, pleasantly warm spring. For others, it complicated or postponed less routine endeavors like buying a house, planning a trip or earning a degree.

Comment

Distance learning will continue through the summer at Western Carolina University, and all summer conferences are canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Comment

Jason Love got interested in microplastics by way of mussels. 

A wildlife biologist by education and training, he’d long been interested in the reasons behind the decline of Southern Appalachian mussel species, and in particular that of the federally endangered Appalachian elktoe. He was interested while working in his previous position as site manager for Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, and he’s interested now in his new position as associate director of the Highlands Biological Station.

Comment

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians received notice of its first confirmed positive case of COVID-19 on Friday, March 27.

Comment

Jackson County is now requiring anybody entering from another state or country to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, along with all household members.

Comment

All recreation sites in the National Forests in North Carolina — including the Pisgah and Nantahala — are now temporarily shut down.

Comment

The closure of Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resorts will extend an additional two weeks from the initial March 18 through April 1 period, the casino announced March 26. While two weeks from April 1 would put the expected reopening at April 15, a press release announcing the closure extension left the reopening plans vague. 

Comment

The past week has seen multiple public parks and forests announce closures of outdoor areas in response to overcrowding deemed unsafe by land managers in light of coronavirus concerns.

Comment

Principal Chief Richard Sneed has issued a March 25 curfew order on the Qualla Boundary in hopes of preventing spread of COVID-19 on Cherokee lands.

Comment

In the last two weeks, the world has changed. From darkened downtown windows to packed-full parking lots at Ingles and Wal-Mart, the evidence is everywhere, impossible to ignore.

Comment

The public health crisis that is COVID-19 quickly became an economic one as governments nationwide took drastic steps to slow the spread of the virus. Bars, restaurants, hotels, airlines and countless other industries have been hit hard, resulting in widespread layoffs and cut hours. 

Comment

When the spring semester began, Western Carolina University’s residence halls were home to 4,106 students, but those students found themselves required to move out two months early as coronavirus concerns heightened on campus. 

Comment

As of press time there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the Qualla Boundary, but the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians isn’t waiting until the disease arrives to take drastic steps preventing its spread. 

Comment

Dupont State Recreation Forest and neighboring Holmes Educational State Forest are closed in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Comment

An emergency declaration issued in Jackson County today will ban gatherings of 10 or more people and mandate the closure of a long list of business types and lodging facilities, effective Wednesday, March 25.

Comment

Coronavirus concerns have prompted a slew of operational and scheduling changes for outdoors-oriented agencies and organizations across the region. 

Comment

In response to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, Western Carolina University will postpone all spring commencement ceremonies originally scheduled for May 8 and 9, and will announce by April 3 plans for rescheduling the events.

Comment

Coronavirus is causing changes, cancellations and postponements across the region. Find out what’s happening in your community.

Comment

Coronavirus is causing changes, cancellations and postponements across the region. Find out what’s happening in your county.

Comment

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority will suspend all disconnections and allow customers who were already disconnected to have their service restored without a fee.

Comment

Operations have shifted on public lands in Western North Carolina due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Comment

Kids with a penchant for learning and exploration will have the chance to see where their curiosity takes them during ASTROcamp this summer at Smokey Mountain Elementary School. 

If all goes as planned, Canton will soon have a 448-acre park for hiking, mountain biking and other outdoor recreation activities just a mile from town limits. The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy hopes to close on the property, known as the Chestnut Mountain Tract and currently owned by Canton Motorsports LLC, within the next couple months. 

Comment

The numbers are in for what an indoor pool might cost to build and maintain in Jackson County, and commissioners are set to vote April 7 on a resolution to move forward with a related referendum question on the November ballot. If the resolution is approved, the next step would be a public hearing, which will likely be held June 2. 

Comment

For the first time in its 23-year history, Harrah’s Cherokee Casinos is closed. 

Comment

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians plans to sue the federal government in protest over a March 12 decision that will allow the Catawba Indian Nation to move forward with plans to build a casino in Kings Mountain. The Cherokee are claiming that the decision is flawed and that the government violated the law by not consulting the EBCI during completion of the associated Environmental Assessment. 

Comment

Efforts to conserve the 488-acre property currently owned by Canton Motorsports got a boost when the N.C. Department of Justice awarded the project a $150,000 Environmental Enhancement Grant.

Comment

Students at Western North Carolina’s institutions of higher learning will see impacts to their spring semester experiences as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Comment

Sharon Taylor was in her mid-30s when she left her office gig to return to school, hoping to pursue a career that would allow her to spend more time outdoors and less time handling fluorescent-lit paperwork.

After graduating from Western Carolina University with a degree in natural resources management, Taylor found a job at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in Macon County, where she worked as a research technician and enjoyed the full menu of retirement and health benefits to which she was entitled as an employee of the University of Georgia. Things were going well, and if she gave UGA the next 20 years, they’d give her a comfortable retirement. 

Comment

Nearly three years after the state legislature passed a bill allowing local governments to approve Sunday morning alcohol sales, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has passed its own version of what’s known as the Brunch Bill. 

Comment

Changes to the alcohol situation at Western Carolina University games are on the way for the upcoming school year, both inside and outside of stadium walls. 

Comment

A state-level budget stalemate that’s been ongoing since July could cause real problems — and real changes — at Western Carolina University if it continues much longer. 

Comment

The atmosphere inside the Lake Logan Conference Center was more akin to a reunion of friends than to a gathering of business associates as members of the Stakeholders Forum for the Nantahala and Pisgah Plan Revision arrived Wednesday, Feb. 26 — and perhaps there’s good reason for that. 

Comment

Smokey Mountain News Logo
SUPPORT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Go to top
Payment Information

/

At our inception 20 years ago, we chose to be different. Unlike other news organizations, we made the decision to provide in-depth, regional reporting free to anyone who wanted access to it. We don’t plan to change that model. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News.

The Smoky Mountain News is a wholly private corporation. Reader contributions support the journalistic mission of SMN to remain independent. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. If you have a question about contributing to SMN, please contact us.