Love it or hate it, the concrete median down the middle of Russ Avenue in Waynesville on the approach to Ingles entrance road is here to stay.

Maggie Valley leaders aren’t taking no for an answer after the North Carolina Department of Transportation said nothing could be done to improve safety conditions at the U.S. 19 and U.S. 276 intersection.

The Bryson City Board of Aldermen is formally asking for public input after mulling over the idea of closing Fry Street in downtown for almost a year.

With so many roads needing to be repaved in Bryson City and so little money to do it with, the town board of aldermen has to make tough decisions and try to prioritize a short list of projects each year.

Howell Mill Road won’t be an option for those planning to drive the length of the Waynesville route for the rest of the summer.

Ask around downtown Sylva, and it’s not hard to find someone with an opinion about traffic. Main Street should be two-way. It should remain one-way. There’s not enough parking. The new parking area on Mill Street is a godsend. The recently installed posts and left-turn lanes are obnoxious and confusing to visitors, or they are a great way to slow the speed of traffic and prevent accidents.

By Katie Reeder • SMN Intern 

Young drivers in North Carolina may no longer be required to take driver education to get their learner’s permit if a Senate subcommittee’s modifications to House Bill 97 are passed by the General Assembly.

She knows me better than anybody.

She’s a little rough around the edges. Her beauty has seen better days. She’s a dirty girl, one who’ll take to cosmopolitan city streets as easily as rugged backwoods trails. Her needs always seem to take all the cash in my wallet. She’s provided me a place to sleep on my loneliest nights. Her patience with my demands knows no bounds. Our time together has been a love/hate relationship.

Once the spring 2015 semester wraps up at Western Carolina University, off-campus students will no longer have the option of catching the bus to classes. 

While enrollment at the university — and development around it — is increasing, ridership on the off-campus route has been declining. So, WCU has decided to get rid of the off-campus route and funnel those resources instead to the on-campus routes.

Though a mixture of rain and ice pelted the windshield as I headed toward the Balsam Gap access of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the forecast was calling for a high of 52 and the car thermometer read 48 degrees. 

I was headed up to see what springlike weather down below translated to when sitting at 6,000 feet on the scenic mountain road, because, let’s face it, I was skeptical. The Parkway had been closed for much of the winter, including the previous week, when temperatures in Waynesville climbed up to the sunny 60s.