Canton candidates confront years of crisis
The Town of Canton has endured an unusual, seemingly unending string of disasters over the past five years.
File photo.
This cycle, Canton’s ballot carries the weight of five hard years. A global pandemic. Tropical Storm Fred in 2021. A mill closure in 2023 that upended municipal finance. Hurricane Helene in 2024. The next four years will test the town’s ability to finish flood recovery, modernize water and sewer, help redevelop the mill site and keep taxes predictable while still paving streets and paying bills.
The job itself pays nothing, but the work has been constant, with governing board members putting in plenty of overtime. In the first 14 months after the mill shutdown was announced in March 2023, Canton’s board spent almost 27 hours in closed session across 24 meetings — more time than in open session — while working on solutions to myriad issues.
Two incumbents, Kristina Proctor and Tim Shepard, have been doing that work all along. Two challengers, Adam Hatton and Neal Swanger, have their own ideas on how Canton should push through the next chapter of the storied riverside town’s history.
Proctor and Shepard emphasize continuity of service through COVID, Fred, the mill closure and Helene — a stretch of history that pulled more hours out of more people for longer than any normal term has a right to demand.
Hatton and Swanger argue that new voices can push old problems forward in different ways with sharper public messaging, broader grant pursuit and a bias toward action when process stalls. They both say respect for the incumbents and their service can coexist with a desire to change pace and reset priorities.
Voters may choose any two of the four candidates.
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Proctor runs a small business from her home in Canton and has emphasized water and sewer infrastructure, grant pursuit and support for local entrepreneurs. She entered office during a period defined by disasters and has worked on flood recovery, the wastewater path forward and navigating grant restrictions.
“I love this town. I love its grit, its people, its heart. Every challenge that we’ve had, we’ve faced head-on, and that showed me that Canton doesn’t quit. That is how I grew up,” said Proctor, a Texas native. We don’t quit, we reassess, we pivot, we focus, we go bold. So I’m running again for a third term not just to finish what we started, but to build up our town so our next generation — so my kid — can come back, live here and work here too.”
Shepard has taught for more than two decades in Haywood County schools, including Pisgah High School. A Western Carolina University grad, he moved to Canton after years of working in the community, won an unexpired term in 2019, then a full term, and is now seeking another. He has focused on basic services, infrastructure and steady budgeting.
“One of the things that I would like to really see, and I hope that the town government plays a role in, is bringing jobs into Haywood County in general,” Shepard said. “I don’t want Canton to be a bedroom community. I don’t want it to be someplace where people live and sleep and then they go work somewhere else.”
Hatton owns a towing and recovery company that employs two dozen people. A longtime volunteer firefighter, he has been active in storm response, community projects and charitable work. He entered the race at the request of Republican Party leaders after finishing third behind longtime incumbents Ralph Hamlett and Gail Mull in 2023, but says he respects the experience of the people he’s challenging.
“I didn’t plan on running until 2027. I was going to run against Ralph and Gail again, just because the people I’m running against are good candidates to what this town needs,” he said of Shepard and Proctor. “I’m running against two candidates that deserve their seat, that can make a difference. Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t matter to me on that standpoint as much as what my town needs, and those are two people that our town could really use right now.”
Swanger is an Army veteran and former Canton police officer who now works in the auto parts industry. He says his time inside town government gave him insight into departmental needs and budgets and that he wants to put that to use for residents.
“I’m not running against Tim or Kristina. I’ve got great respect for both of them. I’m not running against Adam,” he said. “I’m running for the town of Canton and its citizens. I’m not saying that they’ve completely gone off the wall and done bad things. That’s not what I’m saying at all. I just feel that I can contribute my time, my experiences as a town employee for 15 years.”
Canton arrives at this election with no clean break between past and future. The town is still closing out Fred projects even as Helene claims time and attention. That overlap drives most of the issues that separate or unite the candidates.
Water and sewer sit at the top of everyone’s list. Proctor puts it first, linking line mapping, leak repairs and the transition from the old wastewater plant to a new facility with the town’s stability and economic prospects.
“We’ve got major water system challenges. We’ve got pipes that we don’t even know where they’re located. We have them busting and one of the things for us to focus on is those critical upgrades for water infrastructure,” she said. “One of our top priorities is getting the wastewater treatment plant under control that is on the old mill property to building a new one.”
She links that work to a larger principle about running a small town after back-to-back disasters.
“Financial sustainability is paramount right now,” she said, noting the need to restructure departments, evaluate fees and protect recreation services while balancing grant rules against local needs.
Shepard’s list begins the same way. He describes wastewater as the through line from the mill closure to flood recovery to economic development.
“Getting the site, getting the updates to the existing wastewater to make it work better and then eventually building the new wastewater plant so that we’ll have a modern, right-sized, efficient system — that’s one of the biggest issues we’re staring at right now,” he said.
He also cited road work and flood fixes funded with federal help as near-term tasks that must be finished as well, but work at the mill remains the centerpiece.
Parcel owner Eric Spirtas does not have to coordinate with the town, yet he has continued to do so on demolition, wastewater planning and conceptual paths for the parcel. Shepard calls the relationship practical and productive.
“We try to be a good partner with him,” he said, citing the wastewater land deal and pricing negotiations that followed. “He’s worked with us.”
Proctor frames that cooperation as good for business and good for people who built their lives around the site.
“It benefits the community, and it benefits the owner of that property to work with and not against a community,” she said. “We also need to collaborate together when it comes to wastewater. We have mutual things in common.”
Hatton says the town should encourage uses that rebuild the tax base and serve local businesses. Swanger supports recreation in balance with safety, liability and infrastructure and wants the wastewater transition to remain on track.
Outdoor recreation remains part of the picture, not as a cure-all but as a proven revenue stream. Shepard points to Western North Carolina’s regional draw and the economic data around Chestnut Mountain. He says recreation can complement — not replace — manufacturing or other job-creating uses on the mill site.
“It would be a missed opportunity if we didn’t do something like that,” he said, while arguing for a diversified economy that makes things as well as sells experiences.
Proctor places outdoor assets in a small-business context, drawing on the economic development boost from Chestnut Mountain’s Berm Park.
“Priorities for outdoor recreation moving forward are really about supplementing and enhancing our local economy and figuring out ways that we can utilize our outdoor rec as essentially kind of bookends to bring in people into Canton,” she said.
She cited greenway and river access as ways to support shops and restaurants, alongside quality-of-life benefits for residents.
Challengers do not disagree that wastewater and the mill matter most. They part ways over pace, priorities and how the town communicates urgency to outside agencies. Hatton says Canton cannot wait on distant approvals when storms are forecast and money is stuck in process.
“We’ve been waiting on federal funds for five years,” he said. “If you want to sit here and wait on the government to fix every problem we have, we’re going to be waiting more than five years.”
Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, has traveled to Washington, D.C. multiple times over the past four years, along with other local and regional officials, to lobby for expedited reimbursements that are still slow in coming.
Hatton also faulted the town for not implementing more temporary flood defense measures ahead of Helene and said mitigation gear exists that could have been deployed; however, he didn’t mention how a town with a budget the size of Canton’s might acquire it.
Swanger threads a similar line. He supports using the mill site to serve wastewater needs and wants careful planning around any outdoor amenities. He says simple additions that encourage activity can complement bigger projects, but he also wants the town to revisit underused public lands like the watershed at Rough Creek — a major issue nearly a decade ago, but one that’s been low-priority amid the town’s triple tragedies.
On streets, the candidates split — Canton’s modest vehicle registration fee has helped the town pave more roads each year than Powell Bill money alone would allow. Shepard calls that a visible return for residents.
“It allowed us to have resources to be able to start paving our streets,” he said, noting a program that aims to resurface two streets a year. “We’re fixing some things that needed to be fixed.”
Swanger vigorously opposes the fee and would have voted against it. He says he would seek grants and other options rather than put the burden of that on the townspeople; however, most of those grants aren’t for issues considered “routine maintenance.”
A county-wide property revaluation is coming — delayed but unavoidable. It will land during the next term and will recast the rate-setting conversation in a town with storm costs, rising utility expenses and a tax base recovering from several recent blows. Shepard favors a middle approach once the numbers are known, keeping some increased revenue to cover services without making people feel “hammered,” as he put it when describing earlier rate decisions.
Swanger dislikes the idea of higher bills from any angle. He warns that rising values alone will increase what residents pay even if the rate stays flat. He points to new annexations and housing as sources of additional revenue that could ease pressure.
Hatton’s budget lens is rooted in what floods take out of the system and how long reimbursements can stall. He argues for a more aggressive local stance on mitigation and a readiness to fund stopgaps when outside money lags. He says that mindset must extend beyond storms and into how the town approaches mill redevelopment, recruiting businesses that create year-round revenue rather than simply building more rooftops that stress utilities.
Candidates were also pressed on resiliency. Proctor says Canton now knows exactly what to do in a flood and that some structures once protected will be demolished, reducing future exposure. She wants rebuilt facilities designed to be cleaned and reopened quickly.
“We are working through all those with our partners to make sure that the buildings are put back in a way that is sustainable,” she said, citing practical changes like resilient floors at the armory.
Hatton’s view is that preparedness must look like action before the rain arrives. He says the town had time to set temporary defenses ahead of Helene — which it did, nearly a week prior — and should do more of that in the future.
FEMA delays remain the shared frustration. Swanger says money is still tied up from Fred and that residents across the county need answers. He says his goal would be to press through the red tape with the same tenacity residents have had to show for years.
Public service also came up in practical terms — time at meetings, time after meetings, time reading minutes and agendas and the expectation that the work continues when the room empties. Although Hatton and Swanger both said their presence at town meetings is rare, Swanger says he can make that commitment and intends to do so.
“If I’m making a commitment by running, I’m wanting the support of the citizens of the town of Canton. So, I in turn, if they elect me, I in turn, should be able to devote my time to them,” he said.
Hatton points to the first chaotic days after Helene, when he and his employees used heavy equipment to block roads, lift debris and support responders. He calls that kind of responsiveness a civic obligation, not an exception.
Early voting begins Oct. 16, and the election will take place Nov. 4. Canton’s choice is not between past and future, but between different approaches to the same hard list. Finish wastewater and flood projects. Shape the mill into a tax base and a job creator. Decide how much revaluation revenue to keep. Keep paving. Keep answering late-night calls.
In a town that has lived through a historic string of disasters and decisions, the next board will again be asked to do the work, get home late and then do it all again — without pay, but with consequences that will touch nearly every life in town for generations.
