Busy season is coming at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, and management there is working to get all hired up for summer. 

Melanee Lester has been sorting through a 4-inch-high stack of applications on her desk for the last couple of weeks, trying to get Mast General Store fully staffed for the long tourism season ahead.

It happens like clockwork every year. As the calendar creeps toward May, the roads get crowded, lines at the grocery store get longer, and the wait for a table on Friday night mounts. Right on cue, tourist season arrives, seemingly overnight.

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It’s a conundrum the best minds in tourism have been trying to crack for decades.

Piece by piece, Canton is setting the stage for future economic success through a number of new initiatives.

In an effort to bring together the artistic hearts and minds from around Western North Carolina, the “LEAD:Arts” summit was hosted last week by Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

“The arts and artists are essential elements for a healthy community,” said moderator George Brown, dean of WCU’s College of Fine and Performing Arts. “Art improves the quality of life. Artists make good neighbors. This conference will go beyond discussion of the role of arts in the community. Western Carolina University and Western North Carolina will come together through art to take action and foster a better tomorrow for the region.”

Even though the money isn’t yet in place, the town of Canton is considering several options for economic development incentives for businesses willing to invest in the downtown corridor.

If discussions between Nantahala Outdoor Center and Jackson County continue to move forward, the outdoor recreation giant could start work this year on an adventure park and outfitter store in the tiny town of Dillsboro. 

A freewheeling discussion on how to create more jobs stumped Haywood County commissioners last week as they pondered what else the county could be doing that it’s not already.

Candidates for Haywood County commissioner all agreed economic development is one of the top issues facing the county during an election forum last week, but they offered few concrete ideas for how to go about it.