After two major floods in three years, BearWaters Brewing Company is adapting its business to ensure a future in downtown Canton. During a Feb. 13 town meeting, brewery representatives detailed their struggles and their vision for a new chapter, which includes shifting away from brewing on-site while expanding into a whole new line of business.

Updated Feb. 18

early $6 million in taxpayer money will be coming back to Haywood County after Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Gov. Josh Stein announced that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit alleging that Pactiv Evergreen had violated the terms of a decade-old economic development grant agreement when it closed its Canton paper mill in 2023.

 The North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission is requesting applications from qualifying organizations that support the agricultural industry, impact rural communities, and stimulate economic development.

Following up on a campaign promise he made just over a year ago, newly-elected North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson stood within eyeshot of what used to be Pactiv Evergreen’s Canton paper mill to remind the company that he wasn’t going to ease up on a lawsuit filed by his predecessor, now-Gov. Josh Stein.

Apprehension over the fate of a huge industrial parcel in the heart of Canton is now transitioning to cautious optimism.

On Jan. 11, 2025 at 10 a.m., North Carolina will have a new governor for the first time in eight years — and what an eight years it’s been.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) named George Ivey, North Carolina Development Director for the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, to participate in the 2024-2025 class of the Appalachian Leadership Institute, a leadership training opportunity that equips Appalachian community leaders to use economic development as a tool to drive positive change. 

Consultants finally delivered to Haywood County commissioners a report on the results of a secretive, long-awaited “listening post exercise” meant to chart Haywood County’s economic development vision — revealing in the process that there was no input from average working-class residents, an omission that may prompt some to question the applicability of the report’s findings despite the project’s tagline of “stronger together.” 

The Town of Sylva is looking to create an economic development board made up of business owners outside the downtown area after Mayor Johnny Phillips presented the idea to Sylva commissioners earlier this month. 

Stakeholders around Western North Carolina recognize the end of COVID-era child care stabilization funding and the broader lack of available child care resources as a multilayered impediment to economic development.