The Jackson County Commission has approved a new version of the Fontana Regional Library interlocal agreement that contains some significant changes to the revisions previously put forth by Macon County. 

As part of the “Pigeon Community Conversations with Storytellers Series,” social entrepreneur, veteran and visual and performing artist DeWayne Barton will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 13, at the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center, located at 450 Pigeon St. in Waynesville. 

In April, Sylva received the results of an in-depth botanical survey of Pinnacle Park, and now the town is in the process of creating a master plan for the property.

North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Schools, Catherine Truitt, ended a tour of Western North Carolina Schools today, April 16, with a visit to the Haywood County School System. 

While people nationwide are lamenting the loss of bars, restaurants, concerts, festivals and countless other aspects of community life amid the COVID-19 crisis, for many in Western North Carolina the deepest blow has been the loss of access to hundreds of thousands of acres of cherished public lands. 

As promised, a group of about 20 people showed up to the April 23 Town of Waynesville Board of Aldermen meeting to bemoan what they say is a lack of progress on a small park to be located along Pigeon Street in Waynesville’s historically African-American neighborhood.

By Peter Nieckarz • Guest Columnist

The Trump administration in mid-February unveiled its proposed federal budget for 2019. The proposal calls for the total elimination of federal appropriations for public broadcasting. The present level of funding to public broadcasting ($445 million) represents a microscopic portion of federal spending, but the impact this proposed cut will have on public broadcasting will be anything but small, particularly for public radio and the countless communities served by it. Federal budgets may seem abstract and not immediately relevant to us, but as the old saying goes, “All politics is local.” With respect to this, it is important for us in Western North Carolina consider the impact that a defunded public radio could have for our region.      

Lake Logan is a familiar fixture of any cruise along Haywood County’s stretch of N.C. 215, an 80-acre expanse of water that creates a wide-angle view of sudden contrast to the forested tunnel forming most of the road’s winding path toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

But for years, it’s been a well-known fact that the inviting-looking lake is off-limits to locals looking to spend a day swimming, fishing or boating. 

That’s not true anymore.