On Saturday, Jan. 17, Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville will host a daylong series of worship services, presentations and artistic offerings focused on peace, education and action in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine — along with one unique guest.

More than a decade after Jackson County residents helped finance and shape what became one of the county’s most visible civic institutions, a longtime library advocate returned to the commissioners chamber Jan. 6 to issue a warning — decisions made now could quietly unravel what the community deliberately built together.

Despite an ever-changing cast of characters cycling through like a revolving door, the Haywood County Tax Collector’s office has come a long way since Maggie Valley Republican Mike Matthews defeated Democratic incumbent David Francis in 2014 by 1.26%. Now, after nearly four years of service, Republican incumbent Sebastian Cothran has decided to seek other opportunities, guaranteeing a fourth change in leadership over the past four elections. 

The Republican-led North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines to allow the closure of a Democrat-leaning early voting site at Western Carolina University, against overwhelming opposition from the people the closure would affect.

Haywood County Community and Economic Development Manager Hannah White used a Jan. 5 presentation to give commissioners a detailed accounting of where broadband access stands today, how far the county has come since the depths of the digital divide were exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and what work remains before reliable high-speed internet reaches every single household tucked into the county’s ridges, hollers and remote valleys. 

The motive behind one Republican candidate’s bid for the open Haywood County Register of Deeds seat is proof she’s not qualified for the job, says her Republican Primary Election opponent.  

“I feel like someone that does not know the law should not be running for a job just trying to get back at us as a vendetta because we would not issue a marriage license,” said Stacy Cutshaw Moore, one of two candidates running to replace the longtime incumbent Democratic incumbent, Sherri Rogers, who is retiring. 

Haywood County commissioners have approved a proposed land purchase intended to expand the physical footprint around Tuscola High School in Clyde, giving the school district some flexibility to meet future needs if and when they become apparent. 

The action authorizes a $1.176 million budget amendment within the Haywood County Schools debt service fund to appropriate fund balance for the purchase of two adjoining parcels totaling 13.07 acres on Hospital Drive.

Western North Carolina entered 2025 with a familiar sense of dread, confusion and misplaced confidence as local governments, public agencies and assorted boards once again demonstrated an unwavering commitment to solving problems that do not exist while inventing several new ones along the way. 

From Jackson County’s continued Quixotic campaign against its own public library to the Department of Transportation’s discovery that some Haywood County roads remain dangerously intact, the year has already produced a wealth of developments that demanded immediate, serious attention — or at least, a healthy dose of mockery. 

Western North Carolina’s next election cycle is already shaping up amid a volatile mix of entrenched incumbents, disaster recovery fallout and deepening national divides, with competitive races stretching from the U.S. Senate on down to county-level offices. 

While marquee statewide contests appear to be headed toward familiar General Election matchups, cracks are emerging down the ballot, where public trust and institutional legitimacy are demanding attention from voters now more than any other time in recent memory. 

While some originally hoped — and continue to hope — that a series of amendments to the Fontana Regional Library System proposed by Jackson County commissioners might ameliorate enough of their concerns to allow them to remain in the decades-long partnership with the FRL system, a questionable pamphlet and an academically dubious “list of inappropriate books” being circulated by FRL opponents suggests otherwise, even as FRL supporters report troubling visions of Christmas future if commissioners don’t turn back soon. 

Jackson County Commissioner Jenny Lynn Hooper made a rare appearance at a Jackson County Tourism Development Authority meeting last week — only her third of 2025 — after echoing former Chair Robert Jumper’s claims that the attendance policy didn’t apply to her. County Attorney John Kubis, however, says Jumper and Hooper are both wrong. 

Nearly 15 months after Hurricane Helene tore through rural Appalachia, North Carolina recovery officials said in a Dec. 15 meeting and press conference that federal recovery programs meant to help communities rebuild after $60 billion in damages are still slowing them down. 

Michael Whatley, appointed by President Donald Trump as Helene recovery czar in January, has spoken to the head of the governor’s recovery task force only once this year. 

The seemingly indiscriminate closure of an early voting site at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee prior to the March 3, 2026, Primary Election by the Republican-majority Jackson County Board of Elections has students of all political stripes up in arms and the university’s chancellor refusing to speak out on what critics of the proposal are calling voter suppression. 

Western North Carolina has struggled for decades with a simple problem that produces complex consequences — not enough primary care providers practice in rural areas. Specialists often practice in urban areas, routine care gets delayed until an urgent problem arrives and options for patients are limited. The Mountain Area Health Education Center was created to address that gap, and continues to do so with a new facility in Cullowhee. 

Last month, an investigation by The Smoky Mountain News revealed that Jackson County Commissioner Jenny Lynn Hooper had missed at least 13 of 16 meetings of various oversight or advisory boards she volunteered to serve on after her November 2024 election. Since then, new information has come to light showing she’s now missed at least 14 of 17 meetings, but Jackson County Tourism Development Authority Chairman Robert Jumper still can’t cite any authority that exempts Hooper from the removal policy stated in TDA’s own bylaws. 

After months of tension between Jackson County and the Fontana Regional Library system, commissioners appear to be charting a new course — one that could ultimately reverse their June decision to withdraw from the regional library partnership. 

At the very end of their Nov. 4 meeting, Jackson commissioners discussed three proposed amendments to the Fontana Regional Library interlocal agreement. 

Waynesville’s newest co-working space is not a corner suite or a cubicle farm — Root & Rise, located on South Main Street, is designed to be welcoming, affordable and collaborative, with a purpose that extends beyond laptops and lattes. 

Overwhelmingly, municipal officials take pride in their nonpartisan service, but once they’re elected, they don’t just leave their party hats at the chamber doors.

As the federal shutdown drags on, Republicans accuse Democrats of prolonging it for political reasons, pointing to stalled votes that could reopen the government and fully restore programs like SNAP. But Democrats say what they’re holding out for isn’t politics — it’s protection. Specifically, protection for millions of Americans who rely on Affordable Care Act subsidies that will soon expire. 

The steady loss of workers who keep Waynesville’s water running and streets clean has town leaders on edge. 

At the Oct. 28 meeting, council heard grim numbers and took action, voting to fund a pay study meant to stop an exodus that’s led to tremendous turnover and left nine out of about 80 positions vacant. 

Webster voters ended one of the most competitive elections in the town’s history by choosing a mix of new and familiar names to lead them through coming years of growth, traffic and tax debates. Five candidates sought three seats, reflecting renewed interest in local government after years of uncontested races.

Forest Hills residents faced a defining choice this election, selecting leaders who will decide how the small Jackson County village balances development pressure, rising costs and the preservation of its valley character.

For the second election cycle in a row, a candidate who refused to speak to any media outlets in the Town of Waynesville prior to Election Day has come up short in a bid to join the Town Council.

Clyde voters confronted familiar questions this election — how to rebuild after disaster, how to manage growth without losing the town’s identity and how to plan for a future defined by both opportunity and risk. Four candidates competed for two seats on the Board of Aldermen, offering different ideas but sharing a commitment to long-term resilience.

Canton’s election carried the weight of four turbulent years — a pandemic, a devastating flood, the closure of its largest employer and Hurricane Helene’s destruction.

Sylva voters faced a crowded ballot and a divided community, weighing seven candidates for three council seats amid ongoing cultural battles and financial strain.

Waynesville took another step toward stabilizing its downtown program on Oct. 28, approving incorporation papers for a new nonprofit that will let the town’s Downtown Waynesville Commission accept tax-deductible donations and compete for grants. 

Trees already line many of Waynesville’s streets and ring the town’s parks, but after Town Council’s Oct. 28 meeting, their future care will no longer be left to chance. Council members voted unanimously to adopt a new municipal tree ordinance designed to protect public trees, reduce energy use, improve aesthetics and promote long-term environmental sustainability. 

Waynesville resident Sam Wilds is blind, cannot work, uses her entire Social Security disability check for household bills, has approximately $50 left on her SNAP card for the month of October, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. 

Sylva’s Pinnacle Park will undergo substantial upgrades after the town formally accepted a $340,000 grant from the state’s Parks and Recreation Trust Fund during its Oct. 23 meeting, setting in motion a series of improvements that will reshape one of Western North Carolina’s most popular hiking destinations. 

Haywood County commissioners advanced the long-planned Clyde EMS base project Oct. 20 by approving a $2,069,955 construction contract with RYSE Construction. 

The bid represents the second phase of a federally funded initiative to redevelop the Clyde Armory campus into a modern emergency response hub that will serve as both an EMS base and a regional emergency shelter, right in the geographic center of Haywood County. 

Jackson County commissioners have approved a sweeping new conservation framework designed to balance growth with preservation across some of the most ecologically significant lands in Western North Carolina, located in the southern part of the county. 

As chair of the Henderson County Democratic Party, Leslie Carey has spent years helping to build the county’s progressive infrastructure and lead one of the most successful local party operations in the state. After her family received death threats, she says she can no longer continue in the role.

Paul Maddox has spent decades studying sickness. A cancer researcher, tenured professor and lifelong learner, he’s spent much of his career exploring how to heal the body. Now, Maddox says, he’s ready to heal something else.

Hurricane Helene recovery czar Michael Whatley is blaming Democrats for the growing chorus of criticism over his job performance — but in heavily Republican Western North Carolina, it’s not just Democratic voices calling for Whatley to be replaced or step down. 

It was supposed to be a routine public safety forum, and in a way, it was — the faces were familiar, the frustrations all the same. 

Elected officials, troopers, prosecutors and politicians once again took turns describing a justice system straining under its own weight, a system where clogged courts, half-hearted drug treatment, mental health failures and chronic underfunding blur the thin blue line between order and chaos. Their words carried a sense of urgency, tinged with exhaustion. 

With third-quarter fundraising reports now filed, campaign finance records show sharp contrasts in both fundraising totals and donor bases among candidates in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District as they look to Primary Election contests in March. 

Incumbent Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards reported raising $233,163 from January through September, with no personal contributions to his own campaign. 

Minutes from the Dec. 3, 2024, meeting of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners show that newly elected Commissioner Jenny Lynn Hooper “stated her willingness to serve on the Tourism Development Authority, Transit Board and the Mountain Projects board.” Records from those three boards show she’s missed at least 13 of 16 meetings this year. 

Jackson County’s parks and recreation system is in solid condition overall but faces notable shortfalls in land, staffing and key recreational offerings, according to a recent report by McGill Associates. 

Framing local park systems on a spectrum between “expense” and “investment,” the report shows that communities treating recreation as an investment tend to enjoy economic dividends through higher property values, visitor spending and improved quality of life. 

It’s not a lot of money, but it’s the principle — the hurricane-ravaged Town of Clyde is out more than $3,400 due to a baffling disconnect between FEMA reimbursement guidelines and a state program meant to ease the burden of debris removal on private land. 

Waynesville isn’t just another mountain town still recovering from Hurricane Helene — it’s Haywood County’s economic, cultural and governmental hub. Nearly everything that happens in the largest municipality in the state’s western seven counties has ripple effects beyond its borders, from disaster recovery and infrastructure planning to affordable housing and fiscal stability.  

This cycle, Canton’s ballot carries the weight of five hard years. A global pandemic. Tropical Storm Fred in 2021. A mill closure in 2023 that upended municipal finance. Hurricane Helene in 2024. The next four years will test the town’s ability to finish flood recovery, modernize water and sewer, help redevelop the mill site and keep taxes predictable while still paving streets and paying bills. 

Clyde is a small town surrounded by bigger ambitions. Tucked between Canton and Waynesville, hemmed in by interstate lanes and the Pigeon River, it is both geographically and economically poised on the edge of growth — an edge that has never been sharper than it is now, in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s destruction and amid mounting pressure to plan for a future that’s already arriving. 

When Amazon drivers in Franklin showed up for work Oct. 8, they were met not with their usual routine but instead with news that the facility will close on Dec. 10 — right around the time a new one opens 31 miles west in Hayesville. For some, like learning ambassador Nate Crawford, that move might as well be across the country.

On Oct. 1, Republican-controlled Congress shut down the federal government, bringing a renewed round of confusion, finger-pointing and uncertainty to tourism-reliant Southern Appalachia — a region still paying the price for generational poverty, and still struggling with recovery from Hurricane Helene more than one year ago.  

As the federal government shutdown drags into its second week, Western North Carolina has so far escaped major impacts — but that could change quickly. Some federal agencies have curtailed operations, some public lands have opened and closed in cycles and some regional offices are bracing for deeper impacts if the impasse lingers. 

An update on the White Oak Landfill presented to Haywood County commissioners by landfill operator Republic Services Oct. 6 shows substantial volumes of waste coming into the facility — mostly due to Hurricane Helene — but vigilant planning and maintenance is expected to extend the life of the landfill. 

As the federal government shutdown continues, North Carolina residents may be left with a patchwork of closures, service limitations and uncertainty across the region’s parks, forests and federal agencies. While some federal programs will continue without interruption, others have scaled back operations, leaving communities in the state’s westernmost counties to rely on a mix of official websites and local offices for updates.

As Western North Carolina settles in for what could become a protracted federal government shutdown, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesperson tells The Smoky Mountain News the agency’s disaster response operations remain fully funded and active, with payments to survivors, debris removal and other essential recovery work continuing uninterrupted.