Many farmers today understand they can’t put all their eggs in one basket. 

Finger-pointing over who’s to blame for unpaid bills following a business relocation project in Jackson County has transitioned to the legal realm.

Over the past two summers, visitors to the western end of Haywood County have experienced something few others ever have — a Maggie Valley without Joey’s Pancake House. 

It’s one of those issues that garner headlines and controversy but really shouldn’t.

I’m talking about the Brunch Bill, the law passed by the state legislature that allows businesses to sell alcohol starting at 10 a.m. on Sunday if they want. Many municipalities and counties around the state have supported the law, deciding to let local businesses make that decision for themselves.

For Nick Provost and Peter Moyle, co-owners of the startup outdoors brand Gnarcissist Gear, it all started with granola bars in high school history class. Moyle was new at Smoky Mountain High School, and he and Provost became friends over the shared snacks, strengthening their bond as they both took jobs at Cataloochee Ski Area. 

“We worked together all the time, carpooled all the time,” said Moyle, 27. “That’s how this whole ideation came about was talking in the car about what we wanted to do someday.”

As planning proceeds for a new sewer treatment plant in Cashiers, the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority will soon be able to end the long-standing freeze on new sewer allocation in the mountain village — at least temporarily. 

A second public hearing on whether to allow Sunday morning alcohol sales in Jackson County will be held at 5:30 p.m. Monday, April 16, at the Cashiers/Glenville Recreation Center in Cashiers, and attendance is expected to be significant. 

Haywood County is suddenly a hot commodity for property developers; recent news of a proposed hotel in Maggie Valley was met last week with more news of a potentially substantial  “hospitality industry” development in Waynesville that is also likely a hotel.

The type of traditional manufacturing that put many small towns on the map and provided a decent living to generations of Americans is long gone; it’s been in decline sine the 1970s and will never fully disappear, but the massive economic benefits of large-scale industrial production for the most part have. 

Franklin Town Council seemed poised to approve a new zoning designation — the River Overlay District — until a packed room of business owners presented the board with a list of concerns Monday night during a public hearing.