Two weeks after instigating the removal of a resolution supporting the Fontana Regional Library from a Sylva Board of Commissioners meeting agenda — and just moments after scorching public comments delivered by a longtime local — a first-term Sylva commissioner says he regrets his decision and hopes to move forward. 

A popular hiking destination in Jackson County will soon see expanded access and new trail construction, thanks state funding awarded to the Town of Sylva. 

At its July 10 meeting, the Sylva Board of Commissioners approved a resolution authorizing town staff to accept a $92,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ Recreational Trails Program.

In a move that evokes imagery from the biblical battle between David and Goliath, the tiny Jackson County municipality of Forest Hills is fighting back against county commissioners for their vote to withdraw from the Fontana Regional Library system late last month. 

Editor's note: this story has been updated with a statement from Cynthia Mason Womble, acting chair of the Fontana Regional Library system board. 

In a historic decision that will reshape the future of public library services in Jackson County, commissioners voted Tuesday night to withdraw from the Fontana Regional Library system after months of controversy over content and control.

Citizens and constituents of Sylva, I’d like to offer you an apology. In fact, I owe you two.

All Sylva residents are also Jackson County constituents — Sylva is the county seat, and county-level decisions affect us directly. The Jackson County Public Library is a clear example. 

A  proposed resolution that expressed support for the Fontana Regional Library system didn’t survive the first four minutes of the Town of Sylva Board of Commissioners meeting on June 12, after Commissioner Jonathan Brown moved to strike the item from the meeting’s agenda. 

The following events will be held at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

• Elizabeth and Quintin Ellison will present “Land of Blue Shadows: Mountain Life in Verse & View” — a poetry and photography collaboration with the late George Ellison — at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 14.

A reading for “Stronger Than The Storm: Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina” will take place from 5–7 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The collection features work from over two dozen contributors reflecting on last fall’s storm. Proceeds support ongoing Helene relief efforts. 

To the Editor:

On Memorial Day — a holiday that originally honored Union soldiers who died defending the principles enshrined in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and now encompasses all who have served these United States — my wife and I revisited my childhood haunts in Western North Carolina.

With a new middle school on the horizon, Jackson County Public Schools is budgeting for a changing school system. On May 6, JCPS made its official request for local funding from the Jackson County Commission.