Mike Fitzgerald rarely skipped a beat as he darted spryly between his cobbler’s bench and the vintage, grime-coated machines anchoring his narrow shoe repair shop.

It’s hard to fathom, but Fitzgerald knows every nook and cranny of the controlled chaos. Floor-to-ceiling shelves brim with a disheveled array of tack boxes, heaps of leather scraps, and a small army of polish and dye cans.

The streets of downtown Sylva are newly treeless after town crews excavated the red maples earlier this month, but the condition won’t last for long. A new set of trees — 15 Japanese zelkovas — has been ordered and will likely go in this week.

A crowd of more than 150 people took to the streets of downtown Sylva Sunday joining protestors in cities across America for a national day of action to save the Affordable Care Act.

Mill Street in Sylva will go from two lanes to one when a 2016 decision from the Sylva Board of Commissioners goes into effect. However, the timeline will depend on the town’s ability to fund the plan in the upcoming budget year.

An unusual number of “for rent” signs have been cropping up in downtown Sylva lately, and the vacancies have town leaders and business owners wondering what this forebodes in the year ahead.

It ain’t dead.

Rock-n-roll. In an era when sugar-coated pop stars and polished country acts are atop the charts, one wonders if there is any shred of real rock swagger and attitude anymore. Where is that sound and tone that pushes sonic barriers and actually challenges you to think outside the box with lyrical content that isn’t about riverbanks and moonshine, but rather focuses on the raw elements of the human condition?

Sylva’s town leaders were so excited to see the number of applications they received from prospective members of a public art committee they’ve spent the last half year working to form that they considered expanding the number of seats available on the committee.

Health services emanating from the Good Samaritan building in Sylva are set to expand this year as Good Sam moves under the umbrella of Hendersonville-based Blue Ridge Community Health Services.

The Sylva town board has its sights set on making public art a hallmark of the downtown experience, and last week town commissioners sat down to hash out the particulars of what it might take to launch a robust public art program.

The town of Sylva is in hot pursuit of what Police Chief Davis Woodard called a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to add a canine component to the ranks of municipal law enforcement.