Maggie Valley is trying to figure out what exactly it wants to be.

Maggie once reigned supreme in the mountain tourist trade, witnessed by the row of restaurants, bars, hotels and gift shops that line the valley’s main drag.

As Maggie Valley business owners and leaders look toward the town’s future, it is unclear how large a role town leaders realistically expect the amusement park Ghost Town in the Sky to play.

Maggie cheered when Ghost Town in the Sky reopened this summer, but with only a small portion of the rides and attractions up and running, the real potential of the amusement park to lure hordes of tourists back to the struggling town hasn’t been realized overnight.

After rescuing the shuttered park from foreclosure earlier this year, Ghost Town’s new owner Alaska Presley has been slowly whittling away at a laundry list of projects she hopes to complete before it closes down for the winter and reopens next spring.

The Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen is at an impasse.

Town leaders met Monday in hopes of appointing someone to fill an open seat on the board, which was vacated last month by an alderman who moved away. But, the four remaining board members could not agree on a replacement, meaning the controversy-laden process will continue for at least another three weeks.

Raymond Fairchild is a man of few words.

But, it only takes those few words to truly grasp a man that ultimately lives up to myth and legend.

The simple task of replacing an empty seat on the Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen has turned into a process rife with finger pointing and faultfinding after the board failed to lay out a clear process for how the new alderman would be chosen.

Just two weeks ago, longtime alderman and Maggie resident Phil Aldridge resigned before moving back to his hometown in Alabama to get married, leaving it up to the four remaining board members to name his replacement.

Greg Snyder was perturbed when he addressed the Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen in June.

In March, Snyder had plunked down $4,625 to connect five new RV sites at Twinbrook Resorts to the town’s sewer system. Less than two weeks later, the town board voted to change its sewer tap fee rates.

Longtime alderman and Maggie Valley resident and business owner Phil Aldridge resigned from the town board last week.

Aldridge was a staple around town and owned Phil’s Grocery on Soco Road — the only grocery store in the valley for years. He was elected to the town board nine years ago and was currently serving his third term.

The Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen will vote this week whether to relax restrictions on sweepstakes machines for businesses that plan to make their money mostly from the controversial mechanisms.

If the ordinance passes as is, sweepstake-specific businesses can have one machine per every 50 square feet. Video sweepstakes parlors will be required to be at least 1,500 feet away from each other and any established religious institution, school, daycare, library, museum and public park, and the gaming-specific business must also be housed in a building that is a minimum of 2,500 square feet.

Regular patrons of Joey’s Pancake House will notice a different view when they enter the restaurant that is a social center of Maggie Valley.