By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Members of Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance are sifting through paperwork at the North Carolina Department of Transportation Division 14 office in Webster to find out how the Southern Loop road project suddenly appeared on the state priority list.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

As Jackson County officials work to develop a plan to regulate commercial growth along U.S. 441, officials from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians say a partnership needs to be formed to ensure that the area’s economic development fits both parties’ needs.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

The rural landscape of U.S. 441 heading into Cherokee is changing. Drivers can see numerous realty signs touting “land for sale” along the four-lane roadway that leads into the Qualla Boundary’s business district.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Restaurant patrons in Highlands will soon be able to sip on rum and coke while eating a steak or order a pitcher of beer while eating pizza now that citizens voted “yes” to an alcohol referendum.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Tuckasegee community members are at ease now that the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources denied a quarry permit to Carolina Boulder and Stone.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Jackson County commissioners have decided to invest money in the county’s airport.

Commissioners voted 4-1 on Monday (Nov. 5) to award $65,000 to the airport authority to conduct a feasibility study of the mountaintop airport. Commissioners Tom Massie, Mark Jones, William Shelton, and Brain McMahan voted in favor of the award. Commissioner Joe Cowan opposed the vote.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

In their fight to stop progress to the proposed Southern Loop, members of the Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance filed a public records request last week with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to obtain all written material pertaining to the road.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Tuckasegee community members will learn next week if a rock quarry gets state approval to be placed in their neighborhood.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Now that a site has been chosen for the new Jackson County library, the Friends of the Library have a huge undertaking — raising up to $1 million for furnishing the interior of the building.

A plan by Duke Energy to tear down the century-old Dillsboro dam drew a crowd of opponents to a public hearing last week held by the N.C. Division of Water Quality.