Facing an estimated price tag of $1.5 million to fix persistent landslide issues on Allen Street, the Town of Sylva is asking the State to take on half the cost. 

The first students moved into The Husk at Western Carolina University last August, but nearly a year later the companies responsible for developing, designing and building the environmentally disastrous  Millennial Campus student housing development are embroiled in a complex lawsuit that has left at least one local subcontractor facing a six-figure deficit until the situation resolves. 

Despite their proximity to multiple slope failures on and around Allen Street in Sylva, two trouble spots that appeared in late 2020 are unrelated to the others, according to a recently released engineering report. 

A 150-foot section of Allen Street in Sylva has been closed since April as the town board decides what to do about an ever-worsening slope failure that is now threatening the road in two separate places. 

The Nantahala River in the Nantahala Gorge is now open to the public for all uses for the first time since landslides on Saturday, Aug. 24, resulted in significant damage and blockages in the area.

Due to hazardous conditions in the Nantahala Gorge from multiple landslides, the U.S. Forest Service is issuing an Emergency Closure Order prohibiting access to the Nantahala River. The closure is in effect for national forest land between Beechertown Launch Ramp and the Silvermine Take-out Ramp. This closure also applies to Ferebee Memorial Park.

Hazards created by recent landslides into the Nantahala River within the Nantahala Gorge have resulted in a suspension of all commercial rafting and kayaking operations, and a recommendation that individual paddlers avoid the area.

A severe deluge dropped 3.5 inches of rain in the Nantahala Gorge in Swain County on Saturday and triggered slides that covered the road in four locations within a half-mile stretch on the western side of the gorge and spread debris from the mountainside into the river at three locations.

Working in municipal government, one often encounters geographic challenges that exist in some areas, but not in others. 

Cleaning a rockslide on Interstate 40 near the Tennessee State lane will require the N.C. Department of Transportation to keep the interstate closed about one week for the safety of contract workers and those who would be driving in the area.