The Haywood County School Board was divided this week on whether to join forces with school systems around the state in a lobbying campaign to back pro-education legislation in Raleigh.

The school board ultimately voted 5-to-4 to support the political advocacy arm of the N.C School Board Association. The county will pay annual dues of $3,000 to the cause.

Dinnertime came a little late at Haywood Pathways Center Sunday night (Jan. 4), but for all the right reasons. It was the inaugural night for The Open Door’s Hazelwood kitchen, the final piece in turning the dream behind the Pathways Center into reality. 

“It might be a few minutes before we get to the pork chops,” said Jeremy Parton, Haywood Pathways’ newly hired kitchen and shelter director. “They might be a little cold, but that’s going to be OK, because there’s not going to be another night like this.”

A movement to build a new animal shelter in Haywood County is in the early conceptual stages.

Animal lovers say a modern, more spacious animal shelter is needed, despite a daunting price tag and a sizeable drop in animals taken in to the shelter each year.

Underground contamination leaching from an old, closed-down landfill in Haywood County will cost millions to clean up, a burden homeowners countywide will be forced to bear through higher trash fees over the coming decade.

County commissioners got their first glimpse this month at how much each household will have to chip in over the next 10 years to pay for the cleanup.

When Haywood County put up $35,000 to replace a chronicly leaky roof on the Pigeon Community Center in Waynesville, it was both a tangible and symbolic gesture, one that saved a major landmark of African-American community from certain demise.

The outgoing and incoming tax collectors in Haywood County appeared shoulder to shoulder at the podium of the Haywood County commissioner meeting this week, pledging to work together to make the transition a smooth one.

“There’s a lot of animosity out there that has been created by other individuals, and not you two at all. I appreciate you being able to get over that,” Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick told them.

If Waynesville has a dirty little secret, it’s this: a cash cow runs through its power lines.

Of course, it’s not dirty and not a secret — not really. Town leaders don’t hide the fact they have a lucrative electric system. It reaps over $1 million in profits annually for the town.

A months-long undercover investigation led to a raid of three underground gambling parlors in Haywood County last week.

The private gambling houses were outfitted with video poker and keno machines. Officers seized 35 illegal gambling machines and $8,000 in cash during the raids, carried out simultaneously last Thursday.

Hoping to combat a steady departure of officers, Haywood County entry-level deputies will see a 5 percent raise starting in January  — the first step in a three-year plan to bring salaries of Haywood lawmen in line with the rest of the region.

Haywood deputies are among the lowest-paid officers in Western North Carolina. That means high turnover as deputies take higher-paying jobs in neighboring counties.

An Old World pigtail macaque monkey taken away from its owner in Waynesville now has a new home at a primate preserve in Kentucky.

The monkey — “Opey” — was the indoor pet of a Waynesville woman, who’d kept him in a cage in her home for almost seven years. After being picked up by animal control officers in November, Opey stayed at the Haywood County Animal Shelter for three weeks until a permanent home was found.