Sylva aims to ban downtown workers from parking on main shopping drag
The town of Sylva plans to impose a new parking law to stop shop owners and employees from taking up…
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Swain to hire animal control officer, yet still lacks vehicle and shelter
Long-awaited relief for Swain County’s dire animal control problem has finally arrived. For years, residents had no recourse if a…
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Can’t pop the top
As part of the major renovation of the historic Jackson County Courthouse, workers from Brantley Construction were set to remove…
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Summer poses challenge for feeding low-income kids
Thousands of poor and low-income children across Western North Carolina rely on schools to get least at one square meal…
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Quarry expansion plan fuels residents’ complaints
Jackie Shuler has lived in the shadow of the Waynesville rock quarry most of her life. But as blasts have…
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Longtime legal counsel receives WCU Trustees’ Award
Rich Kucharski, chief legal counsel for Western Carolina University, became the seventh person in university history to receive one of…
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Quarry plays vital role in economy
Harrison Construction’s rock quarry on Allens Creek in Waynesville mines granite for building roads, driveways and concrete house pads. The…
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Employee pay at center of Jackson County budget debate
With the Jackson County budget a few short weeks from completion, a split emerged among commissioners concerning raises for county…
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Democrats in Swain Sheriff race prepare for runoff
On Tuesday (June 22), Swain County voters will decide which Democrat will face Republican Curtis Cochran in the hotly contested…
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Schools watch, wait and plan as Raleigh budget debate plays out
While university leaders are nervously hoping state lawmakers will pass a budget that looks something like the Senate version, many…
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New SCC president had former career at WCU
The Southwestern Community College Board of Trustees has settled on a replacement for outgoing President Cecil Groves. Last week, the…
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Budget crunch deals blow to WCU
Western Carolina University Chancellor John Bardo fears the budget passed by the General Assembly this year might cast a shadow…
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Macon commissioners whittle away at budget, but tax hike stays
Having already committed to a 1.5 cent tax rate increase to pay for building a new school in the north…
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At long last, Cherokee telling their own story
For decades the story of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians wasn’t their own. Tourists flocked to see Cherokee men…
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Downtown Sylva to get more free parking
Years of complaining by Sylva merchants that there isn’t enough parking downtown has spurred the Sylva town board to lease…
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Public outcry pushes Duke to consider new substation site
Duke Energy wants an option to buy land at the Swain County Industrial Park with the intention of using it…
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WCU grad drowns during tubing trip
A river tubing trip on a sunny day ended in tragedy last week when a recent Western Carolina University grad…
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Apartment complex fills unmet need in WNC
The demand for stress-free, turnkey living was largely an untapped market in the region until the recent debut of VantagePointe…
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Haywood budget cuts pose hardship for some library users
Kaleigh Davis, 12, comes to the Haywood County Public Library with her aunt Marlene Arrington almost every Thursday night. Arrington…
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Trash controversy dominates Haywood budget discussion
When the hour finally arrived for Haywood County commissioners to vote on a budget for the upcoming year, Haywood County…
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Towns demand parity in Haywood trash plan
There was one thing Haywood County commissioners, town officials, private haulers and county employees could all agree upon at last…
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Lake Junaluska at risk of losing most meaningful conference
Despite its peaceful atmosphere and long history as a spiritual center for Methodists, Lake Junaluska may lose the annual United…
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Civil suit targeting Jackson sheriff fails
“The only reasonable verdict here is for Sheriff Ashe,” Patrick Flanagan told the jury. “He did not commit any wrongdoing…
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Strand project kick started with state grant
Hidden behind 16 feet of Main Street storefront, the inside of The Strand Theater looks like a cave. The floor…
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Perdue gets enthusiastic welcome in Waynesville
Gov. Beverly Perdue visited Main Street Friday to announce that Waynesville received a $300,000 grant from the state’s Main Street…
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Jackson library campaign marks success, new goals
On May 25 the Friends of the Jackson County Main Library marked the completion of their astonishing two-year fundraising drive,…
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Waynesville bookstore changes ownership
Waynesville residents may soon notice the sign on Main Street’s Blue Ridge Books & Café switched out for a new…
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What is Buy Haywood?
Supported by the Golden LEAF Foundation since 2007, Buy Haywood has enjoyed success promoting the county’s farms. Its first project…
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Haywood County 911 director calls for help
Haywood County’s technology director Kristy Wood wasn’t exactly latching onto the hope that commissioners would grant her $2.8 million budget…
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Cherokee passport checkpoint a fun reminder
Martie Hoofer was driving her motorcycle into Cherokee from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park when an Anikituhwa warrior dressed…
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Swain County to air proposed zoning ordinance
In March Swain County commissioners voted to enact a moratorium that put a halt to Duke Energy’s substation project on…
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County power struggle surfaces in Finn v. Ashe trial
“Putting Mr. Finn out of business is not a duty of the Jackson County sheriff. Is that a fair statement?”…
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Linking farmers to restaurants not always easy
On one side are local farmers, toiling from dawn to dusk, trying to compete in an increasingly globalized economy. On…
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New venture welcomed by downtown business community
Downtown Waynesville merchants hope a plan to remodel the old Strand theater as an entertainment venue, restaurant and microbrewery will…
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Students take lettuce from greenhouse to cafeteria
It doesn’t get much fresher than this. Horticulture students at Smoky Mountain High School in Sylva are helping to feed…
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From garden to table in Sylva
In Sylva, the buy local mantra is being reinterpreted as grow your own. Volunteers at the Community Table, a nonprofit…
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Men who built Blue Ridge Parkway recount hard work, dangerous conditions
Lorin Shaw was barely 16 when he landed a job with a crew building the Blue Ridge Parkway in the…
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County cuts to recreation saddle towns with added costs
In the eyes of Canton’s town leaders, the status quo in recreation funding just isn’t cutting it. For years, the…
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Sylva parking shortage in the eye of the beholder
A parking study of downtown Sylva conducted by a Western Carolina University graduate student has gotten local merchants talking and…
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Angel Medical, Mission consider partnership
Angel Medical Center in Franklin may soon come under the wing of Mission Hospital in Asheville. Smaller, rural hospitals are…
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Engineers still honing plan to stabilize remnants of Maggie landslide
Once repair work is complete, a precarious Maggie Valley mountainside destabilized by a major mudslide will be returned to its…
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The tribe’s audit is bound to cause bitterness
How do you kick out a member of a Native American tribe? The Eastern Band of Cherokee is about to…
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Downtown Waynesville entertainment venture wins state grant
A downtown Waynesville project that would put a live entertainment venue, a microbrewery and a pizza restaurant together in the…
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Friends of Jackson library finish fundraising miracle with help from federal stimulus money
The Friends of the Jackson County Main Library have completed their remarkable effort to raise $1.6 million to outfit the…
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Graham to vacate spot on Sylva board, but not until casting vote for next year’s budget
Sylva Commissioner Sarah Graham will step down from the town board at the end of June because her family has…
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America’s Favorite Journey
The Blue Ridge Parkway unravels gracefully across the landscape, at times suspended from high cliffs and etched into rocky crags,…
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Plans in hand, but money isn’t for Haywood park
$6,342,044. That’s approximately how much money needs to be raised before Haywood County residents can expect to see a recreation…
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Jackson County rides out budget storm unscathed
Jackson County Manager Ken Westmoreland said he would deliver a balanced budget with no cuts to services or staff and…
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Grant propels Waynesville skate park, but the price tag is still daunting
Ten-year-old Waynesville resident Zeb Powell has exclusive, 24-7 access to a skate park in town — it’s in his driveway.…
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New owners take long view on Balsam Mountain Preserve
As one development after another began to bite the dust two years ago, lenders who had bankrolled the mountain building…
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