Eight sets of unusable level 3A ballistic armor are now on their way from Haywood County to Ukraine thanks to a serendipitous partnership involving law enforcement, nonprofits and elected officials from the federal to the local level.

Citing precedent and historical trends, the town of Waynesville will request that Haywood County government resume its annual financial contribution to the town’s recreation budget. 

The foreclosure auction to see who will get the property that’s housed Elevated Mountain Distilling Company since 2016 has ended with Kenneth Wells of Key West, Florida coming away with the top bid of $630,000.

Businesses and residents affected by severe weather, wildfires and winds from March 30 through April 6 of this year are now eligible for low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Eleven months to the day after Haywood County awoke to unprecedented flood damage along the Pigeon River resulting from torrential rains the day before, Emergency Services Officer Zack Koonce and Director Travis Donaldson told commissioners they’d secured grant funding to bolster reporting and warning systems.

A bill advanced by Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) to make school board and municipal elections in Haywood County partisan has fallen short, but could eventually be revived. 

Although the indirect benefits of the unprecedented tourism boom that’s enveloped Haywood County over the past few years are readily apparent in the form of increased sales taxes and steady work for hospitality industry professionals, locals are finally about to get something out of it besides soaring housing costs and crowded attractions.

While studying English at the University of Mary Washington, Christina Bendo decided to, by chance, take an elective one semester — pottery. 

Within its upcoming sophomore album, “American Pastoral,” rising Haywood County-based Americana/rock act The Brothers Gillespie has cultivated a vast, vibrant landscape of sonic and lyrical textures.

A much-needed, much-lamented bridge replacement project planned for U.S. 74 in Haywood County will be postponed, per a June 10 statement from North Carolina Department of Transportation Division 14 engineer Garrett Higdon.