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Firefighters continued to make progress containing the Camp Daniel Boone Fire in Haywood County and the Cals Creek Fire in Macon County. Firefighters are monitoring the fires, which are 80 to 90 percent contained. Unless conditions change, no additional fire activity is expected on either fire. This will be the last update on the Camp Daniel Boone and Cals Creek fires.
Canton Middle School student Alyssa Smith won first place in the annual Kids in the Creek art contest, winning a $35 Visa gift card and a tour of Rikki Tikki Tees Screen Printing and Design, where her design will be printed on T-shirts to be worn by all Haywood County eighth graders.
The Highlands Nature Center may not be physically open, but it continues to provide the community with environmental content and resources that can be enjoyed from the comfort of home.
By Boyd Holliday • Guest Writer | Concerned about the reports of global climate change? Depressed? Confused by the competing arguments of warring sides? Can’t find signs of hope? May I suggest four resources that will inform and inspire?
By Jerry DeWeese • Guest Columnist | When in grade school, I wondered why my teachers spent so much time teaching history. What did it matter? This was old news. Now that I have reached “old age” status, I recognize that history is full of lessons and it repeats itself. If we pay attention, today’s society may be able to avoid making the same mistakes we learned about in history class.
To the Editor:
This is in response to last week’s story, “Democratic candidates in WNC call for immediate Medicaid expansion”
As a youth organizer with NextGen North Carolina, I am fed up with the narrative that we can’t afford to provide health care to everyone. It shouldn’t have taken a global pandemic for us to realize that our health care system is designed to leave lower income people behind. Universal health care is the exact type of service that the government should be providing.
The fear of suffocating medical debt has created a situation in which the uninsured and underinsured avoid hospitals unless absolutely necessary, neglecting valuable preventative care. Thanks to our elected officials like Sen.Thom Tillis, who repeatedly vote against the expansion of coverage, corporate greed is being prioritized over human life.
The young people I speak to everyday are determined to use their votes and voices to create a world in which everyone has access to quality healthcare. If you agree that health care is a human right, then I encourage you to join NextGen North Carolina as we register young people to vote and elect candidates who care about people more than profits.
Nicole Skinner
Asheville
To the Editor:
Thank you for your complete coverage of the worst national health disaster of my long life. President Trump is fond of saying that he’s a “war time” president. A war time President like FDR was able to mobilize the allegiance of all our citizens as well as the wherewithal to fight the war. The COVID-19 virus demands national leadership regarding both policy and the distribution of much-needed medical supplies and equipment.
It is upsetting to read that beaches in our contiguous state to the south ere just reopened and that thousands of spring-breakers were still frolicking, potential spreading the deadly virus on the beaches in Florida just a week or so ago.
We need leadership from Washington and a national stay-at-home order to protect all of us from this dreadful virus.
Ralph Andrew
Waynesville
To the Editor:
I realize there are illiterate people in this world but, really, who hasn’t heard or read the “Stay at Home” alerts issued by the government? I have a scanner and I am out-and-about on Wednesdays delivering The Smoky Mountain News to accessible locations.
Ask me how many out-of-state license plates are here and ask me when they started appearing. They are just as prevalent during this pandemic as they are during our town’s normal tourist season. They started showing up within days of the “Stay at Home” alerts!
I have questions as to where they are staying. Did they self-quarantine for 14 days as requested? The biggest question is, why?
Apparently, we don’t need outside help spreading COVID-19, but then I look around I see plates from Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, California, etc.
It isn’t that I don’t appreciate the support for Waynesville and its surrounding areas, but somehow this doesn’t seem to be the appropriate time. All I can say is, well, you’re here now so follow the rules and be respectful. I would prefer to live for a while longer.
Kathy Singletary
Waynesville
To the Editor:
Regarding the letter writer in the April 1 issue, blaming the news media for our current problems, I see that President Trump finally realizes how serious the coronavirus is. He (very recently) said that he hoped the deaths in the U.S. were only 100,000, but they might approach 240,000. The fact that he closed his eyes to facts, just as the letter writer did (or does), for over six weeks, hospitals are missing crucial supplies.
He was first warned about this in the middle of January, but he basically did nothing until the end of February. And he did not realize how bad it was until this week.
South Korea and the U.S. both had their first coronavirus victim on the same date. South Korea immediately started a task force to react against this disease. The U.S. did nothing. The number of deaths projected above are if all states would enforce stay-at-home orders. Five states have not yet done so; the president should immediately impose national restrictions, as most states have done. South Korea is recovering; the U.S. is not.
This administration will not be blamed for the coronavirus, but it will be blamed for failing to react appropriately, causing many unnecessary deaths.
Clark Pearson
Sylva
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency is accepting applications for the Emergency Conservation Program to address damages from flooding in early February in Swain County. ECP signup will continue through Monday, May 11.
Haywood Community College recognizes that student needs have increased due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and as a result, has launched the HCC Cares campaign.
With “stay at home” and quarantine orders, many are doing a lot more cooking. One of the staples of your pantry may be pasta. Dried pasta is shelf stable and with so many different shapes and sizes; there are lots of different meal options. If you usually buy only spaghetti noodles, try other shapes and sizes like rotini, orzo or bow tie pasta.
Visitation at many state forests in North Carolina is two and three times greater than what is typical for this time of year, which is stretching the resources of the sites and making it harder for people to practice proper social distancing. Visitors are asked to strictly follow social distancing guidelines to help keep public lands safe, available and open to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Macon County resident diagnosed with COVID-19 has died. The person was over the age of 65 and had underlying medical conditions.
Easter sunrise at the Lake Junaluska Cross will be streamed live from Lake Junaluska on Sunday, April 12, followed by video of a special pre-recorded Lake Junaluska Easter service.
Social distancing is taking its toll on North Carolina’s small businesses. We don’t have state-specific numbers, but a new survey by the National Federation of Independent Business says 76% of the nation’s small business owners say they’ve been affected in some way by the COVID-19 outbreak.
To support efforts to flatten the curve and slow the spread of COVID-19 in Western North Carolina, Dogwood Health Trust is partnering with multiple rural county health departments throughout the 18-county and Qualla Boundary to increase access to COVID-19 testing specifically to support contact tracing efforts. Dogwood has been working for weeks to source test kits from private labs to support health department efforts in rural areas of the region.
Haywood County Public Health received notice April 5, that another Haywood County resident has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The individual is in isolation at their home.
Our community — along with communities around the world — is navigating unprecedented challenges as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread. The cycle of our lives and neighborhoods has been altered, and we are all working to accommodate an ever-changing new normal. Fear and uncertainty complicate our collective abilities to do this.
A chat room conversation between colleagues at Western Carolina University with ties to China led to fast action that is putting surgical masks into the hands of front-line health workers in the region's smaller care facilities.
Key messages from Haywood County Health Department Medical Director Mark Jaben following the first positive cases in the county.
Hawthorn Heights, an emergency shelter for teens in Bryson City, has shut its doors permanently due to financial constraints during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Ingles Markets, Incorporated has announced its most recent efforts to recognize and support associates during the COVID-19 crisis, which includes hiring thousands of employees and bonuses for current employees.
As a professor in Western Carolina University’s Department of Biology who specializes in immunology and infectious diseases, Mack Powell finds the COVID-19 pandemic particularly interesting.
Macon County Public Health received notice on Wednesday, April 1, that the first Macon County resident has tested positive for COVID – 19. An elderly individual was tested on Thursday, March 26, and was admitted to and is in isolation at an area hospital.
Dr. Mark Jaben, the medical director for the Haywood County Health and Human Services Department, is preparing video updates to keep citizens aware of recent updates and messages regarding the spread of the coronavirus. Subscribe to the Smoky Mountain News on YouTube to see his daily updates and view past videos.
Many of us are looking for easy to prepare dishes with multiple uses, and chili is definitely one of them. Whether you make chili at home or you buy a canned version, and whether you make chili with ground beef/pork/chicken or meat-free; there are lots of things you can do with chili beyond just having it in a bowl with cornbread.
Guys aren’t supposed to sit and wait. Guys are supposed to take action, to get things done.
Yet we seldom get the chance. Most weeks, most months — shoot, most decades — we try to be kind and do what we can. Sully Sullenberger had been flying for domestic airlines for 29 years: dragging his flight case through terminals, sitting in a pilot’s seat that was still warm from the last guy, flying all over the country, all day long, just to end up in Cincinnati. Then on a cold January afternoon, about two minutes after he left LaGuardia for two-hour trip to Charlotte, he had a broken airplane over Manhattan.
To the Editor:
While I applaud the federal government for the passage of their Coronavirus Stimulus Packages to ease the economic impact of the current crisis, I cannot help but wonder if we could not be helping each other a bit more. As workers in many industries are forced out of work and will be relying on government support to feed and house their families, I ask is there any sort of “pay it forward” (or perhaps in this case backward) that might help.
What if manufacturers large and small saw this an opportunity to do the morally correct and patriotic thing by manufacturing the medical supplies and equipment needed at minimal profit margins instead of hiking prices?
What if banks were willing to freeze mortgages for those out of work instead of relying on the government to drastically increase unemployment benefits so their profits continue unabated?
What if landlords would forgive rents for businesses forced to close their doors — and banks would freeze mortgages on these commercial properties in the same manner as for unemployed workers so small businesses would not need to rely on government and/or government backed loans (to be turned into grants) to have a physical place of business to reopen when the need for virus mitigation closures has passed?
What if everyone currently in possession of more than one month’s supply of toilet paper would return it to the store so those who need it could purchase it? Or better yet, SHARE it with their neighbors.
What if everyone with a yard put in a victory garden — sharing seeds with their neighbors as a pack of seeds for most vegetables is enough to supply several families?
What if everyone who is not thrown out of work by this crisis would donate a portion of their earnings to local food banks, shelters and or their local hospital’s “coronavirus supplies fund”?
I am sure each of you reading this can think of other small and large ideas of ways we can all help each other and share the burdens of this epidemic. Resolve to put into play those within your power to do so.
I know some of my suggestions would require much communication between individuals, businesses and government. One hundred years ago this might have been impossible, but with today’s technology I believe it would be relatively easy.
We need to recognize that this epidemic is going to cause hardships and temporarily if not permanently change the way we do some things in America. It is time for the American people to learn share not only thoughts and prayers but also resources and hardships but most importantly to share a resolve to get thru hard times by working together and to share hope.
Kaysea Crowe
Franklin
To the Editor:
Congratulations to the politicians and the news media! You have been able to take a serious virus situation and enlarge it to a horrible pandemic situation. These scare tactics have further created other situations which have greatly affected our economy.
The solutions the politicians have enforced by quarantine have led to mass unemployment and failure of many small businesses.
To solve this problem, the government has produced and signed a $2.2 trillion bailout program. The money to cover this will be created by the Treasury printing inflationary currency. This inflationary burden is the largest ever perpetrated on our economy.
Since this situation has occurred during President Trump’s administration, he will be blamed by the liberal Democrat politicians!
So, congratulations to Nancy Pelosi. You were unable to impeach President Trump, so instead have inspired the liberal news media to create this pandemic crisis.
Richard Swanson
Waynesville
Wendy Williams, a 2005 graduate from Southwestern Community College’s Medical Laboratory Technology program, is now facing the Coronavirus pandemic head on as the Director of Laboratory and Pathology Services for the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System in Boone.
Haywood Regional Medical Center has joined other area hospitals, health care organizations, and LifeShare Carolinas to create a donation-friendly community through the Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Campaign for organ donation.
Western Carolina University will be issuing partial refunds to students for payments made toward on-campus housing and dining services they have been unable to access because of the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said Tuesday the judicial system remains open for business with measures in place to counter the coronavirus pandemic.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, formally resigned from the House of Representatives on Monday, previously serving North Carolina’s 11th District. Effective immediately, Meadows will begin serving full time as President Trump’s White House Chief of Staff, as previously reported.
Dear Haywood County Neighbors,
Haywood’s Outdoor Pantries wants you to know about one of the ways that members of our community are addressing food insecurity. These are hard times for many, and making sure that basic foods get to those who are hardest hit is critical.
DreamCatcher Hotels, the Memphis-based hotel developer that brought Memphis the Guest House at Graceland hotel concept, is sending a large, delicious care package to a customer in Cherokee as a way to support their community during the Covid-19 quarantine and scare.
Haywood County Sheriff’s Office, Waynesville Police Department, Maggie Valley Police Department, Canton Police Department and Clyde Police Department recently issued a joint statement in response to questions and concerns about how the state "Shelter in place" order will be enforced throughout the county.
The Board of Directors for Dogwood Health Trust recently approved the allocation of $10 million to address COVID-19 needs throughout the 18 county and Qualla boundary region of Western North Carolina.
Have you ever started a recipe and realized you don’t have a key ingredient? Gone to the store and can’t find what you need? Here are some ideas for substitutes.
A major restoration project has been completed along the Linville River.
An interim farmers market will operate in Asheville amid the coronavirus crises, from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
About 900 miles of Hatchery Supported Trout Waters will open to anglers at 7 a.m. Saturday, April 4.
The Golden LEAF Foundation announces $15 million in funding to launch a rapid recovery loan program in response to economic losses related to coronavirus.
For those who live or work in Jackson County, these answers to common questions provided by the county's public information officer might clear some of the muddier waters.
A part-time Jackson County resident that tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) is being monitored by health officials.
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Whether it’s a family gathering or a co-worker get together, what kind of meal can you make that will please everyone?
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Hurricane Helene was and continues to be a traumatic event for our region, but even within the worst of it, there are stories of resilience and ingenuity in ways that many had to deal with making or getting meals while having no power or water for days.
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There are many churches and community relief and service organizations that are and will continue to help in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Please make sure you check on what local area churches may be doing or need in terms of donations. Money is often the best thing to donate so they can buy what they need. Volunteer time is also often appreciated.
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It is difficult to know what to write after a disaster of the magnitude caused by Hurricane Helene. It certainly teaches us the importance of coming together as a community to check on and help our friends and neighbors, and how vital our emergency response teams, first responders, National Guard, churches, shelters for both humans and animals, and relief organizations are in times like this.
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