Jackson County is in the final countdown to approving what appear to be the toughest development regulations in the state of North Carolina.

Last week was more than the season for fireworks and cookouts. As second-home owners descended on the mountains to kick back in their vacation abodes, it also marked the high point for homeowners association annual meetings, timed to coincide with when the most members would be in town.

One of the top concerns over the removal of the Dillsboro dam is the unleashing of sediment backed up behind the dam.

Estimates peg accumulated sediment behind the dam at more than 100,000 cubic yards. Duke Power initially was not going to remove the sediment before taking out the dam, but instead planned to let it wash down stream in stages as the dam came down.

“The plan for Dillsboro Dam removal calls for the sediment, or sand, behind the dam to be allowed to move down river as it would have naturally,” said Fred Alexander, the Duke Power spokesperson who works out of the utility’s Franklin office.

Whether or not Duke dredges the sediment is contingent on the cost, according to Alexander. Duke hopes that the sediment from behind the dam has a monetary value that would offset the cost of dredging.

“Whether or not it can be acted on depends on the commercial value of the sand to a sand mining company,” Alexander said of the dredging.

State and federal environmental agencies say otherwise, however. They say Duke will dredge — period.

Dredging would be a mandatory condition of a state water quality permit, which is necessary for Duke to tear down the dam, according to John Dorney, supervisor of program development with the state Division of Water Quality. Dorney, a key environmental officer in issuing the permit, said he made it clear to Duke he would require dredging.

“We have to make sure the sediment doesn’t impact downstream water,” Dorney said. Dorney said he does not care how much the dredging costs, but instead is concerned with protecting water quality.

Other environmental agencies issuing various permits for the dam removal have also made it clear they would require sediment dredging as well, like U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

“The proposal from Duke initially was they could flush the sediment downstream, but because of our concern for the Appalachian elktoe mussel, an endangered species downstream from the dam, we think it is best to go ahead and get that sediment removed and no subject the lower part of the river to any more sedimentation,” Cantrell said.

Alexander said Duke’s plan to remove the dam without dredging was “prepared with input from state and federal resource agencies.” However, Cantrell said Duke and resource agencies had always differed on the issue of dredging.

“All along we had recommended the removal of the sediment. The input from all the agencies was to remove the sediment,” Cantrell said.

Despite Alexander’s contention that dredging may or may not be in the cards for dam removal, Duke’s permit application to the state says they will dredge roughly 80,000 cubic yards of the sediment.

Even with sediment dredging, however, the “what if” scenarios remain a top concern, simply because dam removal isn’t done very often and is still a new science. As recently as the 1990s, the state permitted a dam removal using explosives to blow it up. That is no longer considered a proper method from an environmental standpoint, Dorney said.

Dorney said the best way to remove a dam is in stages, a foot or so at a time, and that’s what the state will require of Duke, Dorney said. This prevents a wall of water from causing a blowout to riverbanks downstream. As the dam comes down, the water level behind the dam will drop, exposing mounds of sediment. Equipment will scoop it out before the dam is lowered some more, exposing new sediment, and so on, Dorney explained.

The “what if” scenario, however, occurs if for some reason the dam collapses in the midst of tearing it down gradually. Then, a wall of water would wash down stream, scouring out banks below and unleashing sediment from behind the dam.

Sometimes, the state requires environmental mitigation for projects that will upset the water quality. In this case, while there will be water quality consequences, the end result will have a positive effect on water quality and therefore wouldn’t require mitigation, Dorney said.

“The argument is they are restoring a flowing river, which is mitigation,” Dorney said.

When the water recedes

Another issue is what to do about the muddy riverbanks left behind after dam removal is all over. What is now nearly a mile-long pond behind the dam would disappear when the dam comes down, leaving exposed mud banks along the river. Those banks are vulnerable to washouts, causing sediment to erode into the river, Dorney said.

“Stream bank stability is a real concern,” Dorney said.

Plants, vines and other vegetation might naturally crop up along the riverbanks to hold down the soil, Dorney said. If that doesn’t happen, then Duke will have to go in and plant vegetation and possibly do other types of stabilization to halt scouring as well. It’s a technique that has been used on a couple of past dam removals down east.

“We’ve made them go out on a regular basis and get in a boat and get their boots on and walk up and down the stream bank and look for eroding places. If they find a problem with stream bank erosion they have to fix it,” Dorney said.

While Duke will be responsible for self-policing the riverbank, Dorney said the public can call in if they see problems.

“There will be eyes of citizens up and down the river. They are a good check for us,” Dorney said. Water quality officials from Asheville can then do an inspection, and if a violation is noted Duke can be fined up to $10,000 a day.

After the dam comes down, the hope is that a natural river ecosystem will return along the nearly one-mile stretch that was turned into a slow-water pond when the dam was built 80 years ago, Dorney said. But if river life doesn’t return, Duke might have to stock it.

“If it doesn’t recover at three of four years, we have to go back and say ‘OK, why isn’t it returning?’” Dorney said. “We might have to have them haul in aquatic life.”

One of the most prominent defense lawyers in the region is trading in a long and lucrative career defending the accused to become a prosecutor with the district attorney’s office.

Reid Brown, a defense lawyer based in Waynesville, has built a reputation for getting off — or at least reducing the punishment — for criminals thought not to have chance. Brown was an expert at crafting a defense when there was seemingly no evidence in his favor, said District Attorney Mike Bonfoey.

Jackson County is on the verge of passing the toughest development regulations in the state this week, potentially making it a target for lawsuits.

There is an organized coalition of developers and Realtors in Jackson County, namely in the Cashiers area, who claim the regulations are overly restrictive and will hurt their livelihood, giving them the necessary standing to sue. The group’s resentment toward the county’s bold steps to control development already resulted in one lawsuit, albeit unsuccessful, challenging a five-month moratorium on new subdivisions while the county crafted its ordinances — a suit they lost. Whether they are willing to invest tens of thousands of dollars challenging the new ordinances once they are in place or whether they can find a backer to bankroll such an effort remains to be seen.

A break-in at the Cherokee election office a few days after the primary last month did not compromise the results of the election, according to officials.

The proposed removal of the Dillsboro dam on the Tuckasegee River is up for review by state water quality officers, who could make or break Duke Power’s controversial plans to tear down the dam.

The state must grant Duke Power a water quality permit before it can remove the dam. A written public comment period for the permit is currently underway.

The town of Sylva has nearly completed its goal of eternal preservation of the 1,100-acre Pinnacle Park in the Plott Balsam range but is still mulling over key decisions about the type of recreation they will allow in the park.

Jackson County commissioners heard yet another round of public comment last week in the final countdown to passing the most restrictive slate of development regulations in the state.

The public hearing was billed as the final one on the issue, but after commissioners made a few minor changes to the ordinances — mostly changes in wording and phrasing — they decided to hold one more public hearing before passing them. It will be held Aug. 6 at 5:30 p.m. when commissioners have pledged to pass the regulations and lift the moratorium on new subdivision development.

Gone are the days of students hunched over wide-ruled paper, forming endless strings of perfectly manicured cursive letters, painstakingly matching the dimensions of each loop of an L or swoop of G’s tail.

Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva is planning an $18.45 million renovation project to expand and modernize the emergency department.

The current ER, built in 1989, simply isn’t big enough, according to Mark Leonard, the CEO of Harris. Leonard cited growth from retiring baby-boomers to the area, the influx of seasonal residents and the growth of Western Carolina University as factors contributing to ER overcrowding.

On one hand, Avram Friedman couldn’t believe Duke Power’s announcement two years ago that it wanted to build a twin-unit coal plant near Hickory. Who builds coal plants anymore, he thought.

“It’s out of the question,” said Friedman, director of the Canary Coalition, a statewide clean air advocacy group based in Sylva.

A state energy bill expected to pass this week has received mixed reviews from environmentalists for failing to go far enough.

On the surface, it looks good. State utilities, namely Duke and Progress Energy, will have to generate at least 9 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by the year 2021 and reduce energy demand among the public by another 3 percent.

An abandoned rubber plant in Waynesville that once seemed destined to rust into the ground was officially turned over to developers of a Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot two weeks ago.

A battle over whether to tax property transactions will soon be playing out in communities across the state, but likely nowhere as fervently as the mountains where resentment toward newcomers runs high, but so does fear of upsetting the real estate-driven economy.

Haywood Regional Medical Center has downsized its workforce by 36 positions in response to a decrease in patient volume and a drop in revenue in recent months. The move will save $1.6 million annually.

The hospital is not exactly in dire financial straits. It has a positive profit margin for the year so far, albeit a slim 3.61 percent. The profit margin is not where the hospital board would like it to be, however, and was brought down by two months of losses this spring and summer.

With just one month left until the election, candidates for chief and vice chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians squared off in a debate Monday night.

Candidates were asked to outline their plans to combat drug use, increase gambling revenue, improve housing on the reservation and reform business practices on the reservation, among numerous other issues. An audience of about 200 people filled the auditorium at Cherokee High School to hear the candidates’ views. While applause from the audience was discouraged, responses by the candidates occasionally led to a spontaneous eruption of cheers.

Abattle over antiquated coal plants that started in North Carolina landed in the U.S. Supreme Court this year, setting precedent nationwide for whether utilities should clean-up old plants.

Every morning, the dispatcher for Haywood Emergency Medical Services starts his shift with a call to the emergency room of Haywood Regional Medical Center.

“Is there an orthopedist on call today?” the dispatcher asks.

Duke Energy has cleared a major hurdle in its efforts to tear down the nearly 100-year-old Dillsboro dam.

Duke got approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last month to tear down the dam. Removal could happen as early as next year, or it could be two to three years away depending on whether critics of dam removal appeal the decision.

Candidates for vice chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians shared their views on an array of issues facing the tribe during a debate last week.

Macon County will be the first in Western North Carolina to test the idea of a new tax on real estate transactions.

Commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to put the new property transfer tax on the ballot in November, along with a $64 million bond package for sundry building projects. Voters will get to pick and choose which, if any, of the bond projects they support — schools, a new recreation center and parks, community college expansion, a library in Highlands and county buildings. As a separate item, voters can approve or veto the idea of a property transfer tax.

A Cherokee judge ruled last week in a case that could affect a long-range plan of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to build a low-level casino on a satellite tract of the reservation outside Andrews.

The case also has implications for how the tribe handles property willed by tribal members to heirs who are not Cherokee.

A row of four stately evergreens that anchored the front of Waynesville Middle School — providing both shade and a meeting hub on campus — were cut down two weeks ago to the chagrin of students and teachers.

While the Pigeon River Trust Fund isn’t threatened in the short term, the lucrative water quality funding stream isn’t a sure bet forever.

The annual payment of $290,000 ponied up by Progress Energy — and soon by Duke post merger — will eventually run out.

A trust fund backed by Progress Energy that has funneled more than $2 million and counting to water quality projects in Haywood County since the mid-1990s is not in jeopardy following the merger of the utility with Duke Energy.

When Dr. Janine Keever hit the online shoe stores last month to hunt for the optimal pair of white knee-high platform boots, she wasn’t trying to spice up the look of her delivery room scrubs.

Instead, the retro footgear would be the perfect hallmark of her disco attire, donned in good fun and for a good cause during last weekend’s “That ‘70s Gala” fundraiser put on by the MedWest-Harris and Swain Foundation.

Haywood Community College has not only expanded its search for a new president, but is now on the hunt for an interim president as well.

It’s the second bump in what was initially mapped out as a smooth transition following the retirement of HCC President Rose Johnson.

Waynesville will be home to the largest Ingles grocery store in Western North Carolina following major renovations and expansion at its Russ Avenue location.

Shoppers will have a larger beer and wine selection, expanded deli and prepared food counter and café.

Traffic headaches caused by bridge work in downtown Canton for the past nine months are now over.

Detour signs were taken down Monday, marking the end of the $3.5 million project to replace the 1920s-era Park Street bridge over the Pigeon River.

Balsam Mountain Preserve has failed so far in its promise to make things right following a dam break that unleashed a wave of sediment into more than eight miles of mountain streams, according to state and federal environmental agencies.

Balsam Mountain Preserve, a 4,400-acre development in Jackson County promoted as eco-conscious, has not acted quickly nor aggressively enough to clean up the sediment, according to agency reports. Meanwhile, the window to catch the sediment and get it out of the creeks is narrowing. And in some cases, neglect to keep tabs on sediment traps stationed along the creeks is causing even more erosion, according to the agencies.

Balsam Mountain Preserve is off the hook on one front: it didn’t need a permit from the state dam safety office before constructing a dam at its golf course.

Calculating the volume of mud that washed downstream with the collapse of a large earth dam at Balsam Mountain Preserve has emerged as a source of contention between the developer and state and federal agencies.

The packed earth dam — 36-feet high at its tallest point — sequestered a pond used to irrigate the development’s golf course. It collapsed in early June.

Duke Power does not want to dredge backlogged sediment from behind the Dillsboro dam before tearing it down despite both state and federal agencies insisting otherwise.

Duke filed an appeal this week protesting a decision by the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission that requires Duke to dredge the sediment before it removes the dam. The energy commission granted Duke permission to tear down the Dillsboro dam last month, on the condition that it dredge sediment from behind the dam. Duke must develop a sediment removal plan in conjunction with state and federal environmental agencies, and the energy commission must sign off on it before dam removal can begin.

After years of debate over stray animals in Macon County — namely the lack of anywhere to take them — county leaders decided last week that it’s time to build a county animal shelter.

Along with the shelter will come two animal control officers to pick up strays and enforce animal control laws, as well as one office staffer. It will cost the county upwards of $250,000 a year, but county commissioners said it is an issue the county has dodged for too long.

Haywood Regional Medical Center is planning a $16.5 million expansion including a surgery support wing, an endoscopy unit, a new lobby and unfinished shell space for future expansion.

The expansion is being billed as a new surgery center, although it won’t actually include any new operating rooms. The hospital is keeping its current seven operating rooms and constructing a support wing adjacent to it. The wing will include a waiting room for family, storage for medical equipment, nursing stations and 20 hospital rooms where patients are prepped for surgery and spend their recovery.

Haywood Regional unveiled plans for a $16.5 million expansion two weeks ago on the heels of a workforce reduction designed to stem three months of financial losses.

Hospital officials realize the timing of the expansion announcement following layoffs is “sensitive,” Eileen Lipham, a hospital vice president, said at a community meeting where the plans were unveiled. The expansion has been in the hospital’s long-range plan for years and in the planning stages for 18 months. The financial losses are a new development, and hospital officials are confident it is only a phase, similar to what all businesses occasionally witness, Lipham said.

Families piling into rafts at the Dillsboro put-in on the Tuckasegee River last week cast a leery eye at what seemed like a scene from a ‘70s James Bond movie: three men in black wetsuits and masks moved stealthily up the river, occasionally slipping below the surface with their snorkels barely visible.

The Swain County Board of Elections last week purged 110 voters from its rolls who had listed their voting address as the Oconaluftee Job Corps Center, a job training and education center for at-risk youth.

The voters had been students at Job Corps at some point over the past six years but no longer live in Swain County. The move partially quells a five-month-old challenge to the voting status of Job Corps students. While the former students have now been purged from the rolls, the question of whether to let future Job Corps students register to vote in Swain County has not been resolved.

In March, Mike Clampitt, chairman of the Swain County Republican Party, challenged the legality of Job Corps students registering to vote locally. Clampitt claimed they were not technically residents. Shortly after Clampitt filed his challenge, however, the Job Corps Center closed down for campus repairs. All the students were sent away.

Clampitt’s challenge then took a new turn. Many of the voters in question had graduated from Job Corps years ago, but were still on the rolls. But with the campus totally closed down, it was clear that no one lived there anymore.

To make his case, Clampitt sent letters to the students, addressed to the Job Corps address they used when registering to vote. Clampitt spent $350 sending out letters by regular mail and then by certified mail. Clampitt’s goal was collecting “return to sender” slips for all the voters to show they were no longer residents.

Meanwhile, however, the county election office was going through a similar process. Election director Joan Weeks sent two letters by regular mail and a third by certified mail — a process legally required before removing a voter from the rolls.

Weeks said that even though the process is time-consuming, it is meant to protect a legitimate voter from being arbitrarily removed from the rolls. It’s possible one or more of the students had settled down in Swain County after graduating from Job Corps and could show up at the polls at the next election thinking they were still registered.

“We know Job Corps has closed, but by law that’s how we have to do it,” Weeks said.

Weeks said it was unnecessary for Clampitt to send out mailings of his own.

“It doesn’t matter if he did 15 mailings. We have to do them as the Swain County Election Board sending out the mailings through our office,” Weeks said.

Clampitt said he was kept in the dark about the status of his challenge, however. He said he was under the impression that the burden of proof was up to him to prove the students were no longer residents. In preparation for a formal hearing on his challenge, Clampitt even lined up subpoenas of Job Corps staff to testify that the students in question no longer lived there. Clampitt said the steps seemed arduous to him. Clampitt felt like the election board was making his challenge difficult “to see if I would take the time to continue with it.”

“They tried to inconvenience me and made me jump through a lot of hoops,” Clampitt said.

The formal challenge hearing was scheduled for September, but it may be canceled now since the voters in questions have already been removed from the rolls. Clampitt said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the election board’s decision to purge the roll of Job Corps voters before the hearing could be held.

Weeks said the election board couldn’t take action sooner because by law it has to wait for the results of the certified mailings it sent out.

Clampitt said he is glad the old names are now purged from the rolls. Clampitt feared the names were fodder for election fraud. Someone could apply for absentee ballots using the names of Job Corps students. The request for an absentee ballot is a simple process, requiring nothing more than a hand-written letter and signature of the voter. The request can stipulate the ballot be sent to any address in the world.

“Who knows who would fill it out?” Clampitt said.

What next?

Voting by Job Corps students has been controversial over the years. In past elections, several groups of Job Corps students would be brought into the board of elections office and registered to vote prior to the election. They were later brought in to cast ballots, sometimes on Election Day but often during early voting. Job Corps staff included leaders in the Democratic Party and a Democratic county commissioner, prompting criticism that staff would persuade the students to vote a certain way.

Critics claimed the mass registration of Job Corps students was part of a coordinated effort by the Democratic Party machine to control elections and retain power. In a small county like Swain a handful of votes can make a difference, making the Job Corps voters an important battleground, Clampitt said. Clampitt anticipates the voter registration of Job Corps students will resume when the center re-opens.

“I think they will continue to push the envelope with the system and register those people to vote en masse,” Clampitt said.

Clampitt plans to track future voting registration drives involving Job Corps students and challenge their status as residents.

“It is going to be a lot of work, but I am just going to have to keep up with what they are doing,” Clampitt said.

It is unclear how a challenge on those grounds would fare.

According to state election law, a person can register to vote in a county after living there 30 days. Students in colleges and universities often register to vote in the town where they are going to school. But state law also says a voter is not considered a resident if they come to a place “for temporary purposes only, without the intention of making that county a permanent place of abode.”

Around 200 students funnel through the Job Corps Center in a year, some staying for a just a few weeks — getting kicked out for misbehaving or leaving on their own — while others stay for months as they complete their GEDs, high school diplomas, or job training courses in everything from nursing home care to masonry. The students are mostly considered “at-risk.” For many, Job Corps is a last chance in life, often court-ordered in lieu of probation or detention. The Job Corps center is located inside the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

A lawsuit against Jackson County for disbanding the Jackson County Airport Authority two-and-a-half years ago is headed for another round in court.

The case had advanced to the N.C. Court of Appeals, which last week ruled the lawsuit was a “moot point.” The dismissive ruling left one issue undecided, however — whether Jackson County will have to pay the attorney’s fees of the men who sued the county. The attorney’s fees amount to more than $35,000.

Jackson County accidentally gave away the county’s animal shelter to the Jackson County Airport Authority 10 years ago, and now it wants it back.

The blunder was only recently discovered. The error dates back to 1998 when the county transferred both the management of the facility and the airport itself to the Jackson County Airport Authority, a separate entity from the county. The animal shelter is adjacent to the airport and was part of the same tract.

Jackson County leaders appear to be backing down from a lofty vision to transform U.S. 441 leading to Cherokee into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

The planning board has spent several months rewriting commercial development guidelines for the 3.5-mile stretch of highway. The result is billed as a compromise that will give prospective developers more flexibility, yet still require basic aesthetic standards.

Real estate prices have taken such a drastic plunge in Macon and Jackson counties — which once boasted the highest concentration of mega-developments catering to the high-end second home market — that county commissioners there keep postponing the countywide property revaluation.

As Macon Bank scurried to get in on the ground floor of the real estate heyday in the mountains, it unwittingly stumbled into a house of cards, and found itself caught up in a scheme akin to insider trading that artificially inflated high-end lot prices and duped the bank into making risky loans.

Haywood County temporarily backed off its hard-line stance against tiny Confederate flags being stuck in the ground around the base of a memorial for Confederate soldiers on the lawn of the historic courthouse in Waynesville, but has once again started removing the flags.

After getting a complaint about the divisive symbol being placed on the courthouse lawn by Confederate supporters, the county decided to remove the tiny flags. That didn’t last long, however.

When a workshop on proper and improper sexual behavior in preschoolers premiered at a childcare conference in the region a few years ago, more than 60 childcare workers packed the session, surprising even the organizers.

The reason for the popularity became clear during the question and answer session. Each teacher had a list of scenarios from their classroom they wanted to share and were craving a setting where it was OK to talk about them.

First United Methodist Church’s Child Development Center in Waynesville suddenly closed its daycare and after-school programs two weeks ago, leaving 65 children without childcare. The preschool is still operating.

The center cited the loss of both its director and assistant director in mid-August as the reason for the closure. Both had sought other jobs in higher paying sectors of the childcare and education industry unbeknownst to each other or to the center’s board of directors.

Macon County leaders will get their first real taste of how the public feels about a $64 million bond vote at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10, in the Macon County courthouse.

Macon residents will be voting on a slate of construction projects totalling $64 million in a countywide vote on Nov. 6

A public hearing Monday on a $64 million bond for various construction projects in Macon County attracted relatively few naysayers.

Voters in Macon will get to weigh in on the slate of construction projects in a countywide vote on Nov. 6. Each component of the bond package will be a separate item on the ballot. The biggest share of bond money is for new schools. Other components include recreation, a new library in Highlands, a new senior center, and a new community college building.

The election for chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians came down to a mere 30 votes last week, and apparently isn’t over yet.