The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announced that Drake Fowler, executive director of The North Carolina Arboretum, has been elected to its 2026 Council of Fellows. 

ASLA Fellows are recognized for their exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large.

To the Editor:

As a semi-retired resident of Western North Carolina, I never expected to spend this stage of life focused on whether I can trust my decision makers to act in the best interests of our community, our region and our country. 

Editor’s note

As Tony Dillard notes in this guest column, we’ve printed two other opinion pieces over the last two weeks by Waynesville aldermen Chuck Dickson and Jon Feichter regarding this annexation and the issue of whether these housing developments fit into the character of Waynesville. It’s unusual for The Smoky Mountain News to then give this much space to a third opinion piece, but given the importance of this issue — how will we grow — we decided to give Mr. Dillard the opportunity to voice his concerns. To note, Dillard is a private citizen in Waynesville.

— Scott McLeod, SMN Editor 

A new coalition of North Carolina parents is taking aim at Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, alleging his past leadership decisions placed children at risk and demanding accountability ahead of the November election. 

The group, calling itself Parents Against Whatley, launched this week with more than 60 members spanning 19 counties. Organizers say the coalition includes a mix of party affiliations, with more than one-quarter identifying as unaffiliated voters. 

I appreciate my colleague taking the time to explain his vote (“Why I voted to annex Queen’s Farm,” April 22 SMN) to annex Queen’s Farm. These are the kinds of decisions that deserve a full and open discussion. 

We agree on many of the challenges facing our community. Growth is happening. Affordable housing is scarce. And we have a responsibility to provide services without placing an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.

Where we differ is on what this decision represents. 

To the Editor:

In light of the shortcomings in the Town of Waynesville Development Plan surfaced by Queen’s Farm phases 1 and 2, it might be a good time to look back to the 1990s when the Old Asheville Highway was slated for improvement — from where Lowe’s is now to Downtown Waynesville.

That windy two-lane road into town was scheduled to be straightened and widened. NCDOT spent an enormous amount of time and effort to engage the community in order to learn of concerns and needs before drawing up a plan.

To the Editor:

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There has been a coordinated plan by people such as those in the Heritage Foundation to dumb down regular people in the USA since the Reagan era. Alvin Toffler even said in his book, “The Third Wave,” that industrial era schools were designed to teach students to be obedient, on time and do rote repetitive work. 

A week and a half after Fontana Regional Library Director Tracy Fitzmaurice tendered her resignation, the board is moving forward to find a replacement. 

At a specially called Feb. 9 meeting at the Jackson County Library’s community room, the board went into a closed session to discuss details. 

“Here’s why the original neocon thinkers — people such as Irving Kristol, James Q. Wilson, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan — can be so helpful right now: They focused their attention on the bloody crossroads where morality and politics intersect. They saw politics through the lens of not only polling and social-science data, but also literature, philosophy, psychology and theology.

Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe me.” 
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky. 

This poem by the 14th century Persian poet, Hafiz, was cited in Wayne Dyer’s book “Change Your Thoughts — Change Your Life.”