Open space requirement set at 25 percent
How much open space should be required in new developments? That question has caused the most contention among Jackson County…
Read More
Election probe likely to swing on interpretation
A state election investigator is trying to determine whether a Swain County voting drive targeting the poor and elderly crossed…
Read More
A new park opens
“Ghost Town is one of the biggest things that has happened to the western end of North Carolina in many…
Read More
Sky-high hopes: Maggie Valley’s theme park destination looks to the future with an eye on the past
After they opened Joey’s Pancake House in 1966, Brenda O’Keefe and her late husband would calculate how much pancake batter…
Read More
Ressurecting the Ghost of Maggie past
Bob Cordier likes a challenge. So, when the 25-year veteran of the amusement park industry decided he was bored with…
Read More
Jackson planners propose exempting existing lots from steep slope rules
For the second week in a row, the Jackson County planning board watered down proposed development regulations following rounds of…
Read More
Moratorium opponents suffer setback
A group of Realtors and developers challenging the legality of Jackson County’s five-month moratorium on new subdivisions lost the first…
Read More
Haywood TDA helps Parkway views
Drivers on the Blue Ridge Parkway will be able to catch a few more views from overlooks through the Haywood…
Read More
State, local well regulators on the way
No one knows how many wells are planted in the mountainsides of Western North Carolina.
Read More
Survey studies public input in Macon County
As county planner in Macon County, Stacey Guffey knows a little bit about controversy and soliciting public opinion.
Read More
Planners already planning to revisit development rules
As public comments rolled in to the Jackson County planning office on a proposed steep slope ordinance, one provision that…
Read More
Jackson planners take public advice, relax some proposals
Proposed development regulations in Jackson County were made later this week after dozens of written public comments flooded the planning…
Read More
Impasse proves too much for Mountain Projects
A disagreement between Haywood County commissioners over an intergenerational Head Start and senior day care facility has come to an…
Read More
The big drawdown
JD McCurry has seen his share of horror stories in his 20 plus years as a well driller. Take the…
Read More
Cherokee contemplates Wal-Mart’s impact
Some residents on the Cherokee Indian Reservation are calling for a referendum vote on whether Wal-Mart Stores should be allowed…
Read More
No resolution yet on Head Start property
Mountain Projects director Patsy Dowling hit another wall this week in her attempt to lease land from the county for…
Read More
Hospital response to story raises questions
An article that appeared in The Smoky Mountain News opinion section two weeks ago based on an anonymous interview with…
Read More
History buffs urge Macon to protect landmarks
Members of a heritage task force in Macon County want town and county leaders to form a commission with regulatory…
Read More
Some highlights of the draft Jackson County steep slope ordinance
• The ordinance only applies to development on slopes greater than 30 percent. • Developers must file a hydrology report,…
Read More
Deadline nears for public input on steep slope ordinance
The Jackson County planning board is accepting written public comment through May 14 on the latest version of a draft…
Read More
Commissioners give HRMC board vote of confidence
All three Haywood Regional Medical Center board members were reappointed this week for another three years by the Haywood County…
Read More
Swain leaders tout river access, horse ring upgrades
Not that many years ago, anglers and boaters wanting to gain access to the Tuckasegee River in Swain County essentially…
Read More
Studio 33 wins $10,000 start-up award from Haywood Chamber
Custom jewelry business Studio 33 and its owner Diannah Beauregard won the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce Business Start-up Competition…
Read More
Road standards would help rescue vehicles
When a roaring forest fire whipped through a mountainside development in Swain County two months ago — burning nine homes…
Read More
New WCU business dean has academic, business experience
Ronald A. Johnson, who holds the JP Morgan Chase Chair in Finance in the Jesse H. Jones School of Business…
Read More
TDA quiets some critics with festival funding hike
The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority gave out twice as much money in grants for festivals this year, quelling some…
Read More
Downtown Sylva gets free wireless access
When Rhonda Williams fired up her laptop in the Sylva library a couple of weeks ago, she was pleasantly surprised…
Read More
State considers controls on steep slope construction
Local governments balking at controlling development on steep mountainsides would be forced into action if the General Assembly passes a…
Read More
New ER director says transition going well
The board of the Haywood Regional Medical Center heard a glowing report last week on how the hospital’s emergency department…
Read More
Jackson citizens asked to ‘imagine ... a library’
A coffee shop. That’s one of the more unique but interesting ideas that emerged during a series of public input…
Read More
Affordable housing on the plateau
Each weekend, Carol Austin figures out what meals her family is going to eat during the upcoming workweek. She shops…
Read More
Tribe helps preserve Cowee Mound in Macon
As a child growing up in Oklahoma, Tom Belt often heard that there were reasons a group of Cherokee had…
Read More
Leaders, citizens demand input as road plan progresses
After a two-year lull, debate over a controversial expressway through Jackson County known as the Southern Loop could soon re-emerge.
Read More
Shuler touts Heritage Area funding
Representative Heath Shuler announced Monday that the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area has been allocated a federal appropriation of $748,955…
Read More
Nurses need more support, applicants say
One of the top issues that emerged during county commissioner interviews of hospital board applicants last week was the need…
Read More
Law provides few protections for Indian mounds
When it comes right down to it, the good will of private landowners is often what stands between saving Indian…
Read More
Deteriorating perception of HRMC a focus of interviews
The rift between Haywood Regional Medical Center administration and the medical community needs to be repaired, and public confidence in…
Read More
Access management
Access management deploys numerous design techniques to reduce congestion on clogged roads, five-lane drags being the primary candidate.
Read More
Traffic footprint of Super Wal-Mart could reach far and wide
Brace yourself, West Waynesville: a new Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot complex due to open next summer will bring an…
Read More
Despite delays, Macon SCC campus almost ready
Southwestern Community College officials anticipate holding classes this fall at a new satellite campus in Macon County, more than a…
Read More
What should a new library look like?
The Sylva library is favorite destination for Kim Mathis and her four children. There’s just one problem. “The library has…
Read More
Haywood commissioners still split on Mountain Projects deal
Haywood County commissioners continue to disagree on what kind of deal to give Mountain Projects on a tract of county…
Read More
What the new road will look like
About $1.5 million in roadwork is planned to accommodate the increased traffic on South Main Street and Hyatt Creek Roads…
Read More
Crowded field seek seats in Cherokee
Seven people have plunked down the necessary $500 filing fee required to campaign for principal chief of the Eastern Band…
Read More
Legality of Job Corps votes questioned
When Mike Clampitt was making get out the vote calls during his campaign for Swain County commissioner last fall, he…
Read More
Reasons for closing Jobs Corps still unclear
Three weeks after federal officials rolled into town and abruptly shut down the Oconaluftee Jobs Corps Center in Swain County,…
Read More
Jackson planners consider open space for new developments
Developers in Jackson County could be asked to designate 25 percent of new developments as conserved open space under a…
Read More
Ghost Town has a deluge of job applicants
When Ghost Town in the Sky recently held auditions to fill its entertainment needs, about 40 potential cowboys competed for…
Read More
Clean and renewable, biodiesel takes off in WNC
When Greg Kidd saw his odometer hit 250,000 miles last spring, he knew he would reluctantly be catapulted into the…
Read More
Still on the table
Jackson County planning board meetings likely will get even more interesting as members move on to the nuts and bolts…
Read More
