A rezoning of the former paper mill parcel in Canton has replaced an expiring industrial development moratorium, maintaining the town’s limited control of the site despite the possibility of an impending sale to a developer with unknown intentions. 

With the eyes of the state, the region and the county on the Town of Canton — flood recovery is approaching its third year and the sting of losing a major employer last June is still fresh — Canton’s governing board took the opportunity to reiterate its core missions of transparency and accountability during a special called meeting on the morning of July 16.  

This July, the American Red Cross continues to stress that blood and platelet donors are critically needed to support lifesaving transfusions this summer.

The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority announced last week that it had awarded just over $250,000 in grants to 18 organizations for more than two dozen community projects all across the county. 

The shuttered paper mill at the heart of Canton is still there — for now. One day it won’t be, but a forthcoming monument will ensure the generations of papermakers that made Canton great won’t ever be forgotten.

A full year after one of the county’s largest employers — the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill, in downtown Canton — shut its doors, Canton’s governing board adopted a conservative budget for fiscal year 2024-25 that contains no property tax increase. 

Administrators for the Town of Canton have presented a conservative fiscal year 2024-25 budget that seeks some sense of sustainability after last year’s closing of the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill, which created a substantial revenue deficit and has now forced the small town to plan for a huge new expense it’s never had to worry about before.

Several notable things happened during the Town of Canton’s regular board meeting on May 23, but the meeting was perhaps more notable for something that didn’t happen — a closed session. 

Pactiv Evergreen’s shocking announcement that it would close its 115-year-old paper mill broke lots of hearts — and wallets — in Canton, but now, more than a year later, North Carolina’s Attorney General is looking for some payback over broken promises.

In the hours following the announcement that Pactiv Evergreen’s paper mill property in Canton may have a new owner in the coming months, news came and fast and furious.