The question of who will control one of Jackson County’s most visible public assets is beginning to draw clear lines, and on March 26, Sylva’s Board of Commissioners stepped firmly onto one side. 

In a unanimous vote, commissioners adopted a resolution supporting continued control of the Jackson County Library Complex by the Jackson County Public Library, signaling opposition to any effort that would shift authority elsewhere. 

The Fontana Regional Library has held part of Tracy Fitzmaurice’s heart for over half of her life, and now she must consider what to do without it.

Fitzmaurice, 60, first came to the region during a March 1985 vacation. While in the region, she visited Western Carolina University. After returning home to England, she applied to attend college in the place that instantly captured her heart, and in August 1985, she made the move. 

The palpable undertones of tension felt at the last several Fontana Regional Library board meetings seemed to have subsided at last week’s trustees meeting, but the system’s challenges continue to mount. 

For months, Jackson County commissioners have been making material decisions to advance a costly and widely criticized plan to pull its two libraries from the Fontana Regional Library system.

Nonetheless, in 2025, the Jackson board proposed three amendments which, contingent on passage by fellow FRL-member counties Macon and Swain, might convince commissioners to change their course. 

When Grace Powell walks into the Jackson County Public Library on June 1 as its new full-time director, she will inherit more than a building full of books — she will inherit a community still divided. 

Powell, a lifelong Sylva resident, earned her elementary education degree at Western Carolina University, taught third grade at Scotts Creek elementary school for a year and a half before earning a master’s degree in library science from East Carolina University.

A week and a half after Fontana Regional Library Director Tracy Fitzmaurice tendered her resignation, the board is moving forward to find a replacement. 

At a specially called Feb. 9 meeting at the Jackson County Library’s community room, the board went into a closed session to discuss details. 

To the Editor:

I want to address the financial issues involved with the decision by the Jackson County commissioners to leave the Fontana Regional Library System. 

This past June citizens of Jackson County experienced a significant tax increase. The commissioners made a show at the June meeting of “lowering” the tax rate.

To the Editor:

I’m sorry to read that Tracy Fitzmaurice resigned as head of the Fontana Regional Library System, and I want to say something clearly in defense of Tracy.

Tracy has given decades of steady, public-minded service to the Fontana Regional Library community — she’s been with the system since 1991 and stepped into the director role in January 2023. That kind of institutional knowledge and calm competence isn’t replaceable on a 30-day timeline. 

Amid growing financial concerns, Jackson County’s four Republican commissioners have spent the last few years fighting a culture war. On March 3, Primary Election voters will weigh in on their priorities. 

Over the past four budget cycles, Jackson County commissioners have overseen a steady expansion of county government, with the general fund growing from $71.7 million in fiscal year 2021-22 to $106.9 million in 2025-26, an increase of roughly 49% over five years.

The seeds of chaos sown into the fertile soil of the embattled Fontana Regional Library system over the last few years have sprouted. 

The FRL Board of Trustees has struggled to function over the last year, but things have come to a head the last couple of weeks as trustees, local media and a former librarian all received anonymous emails riddled with misinformation and threats. All the while, the board is still without an attorney, and now, that lack of representation is holding up crucial decisions.