Holly Kays
When Chancellor David Belcher asked Sam Miller, Western Carolina University’s vice chancellor for students success, to tell the Board of Trustees about Western’s “terrifyingly good enrollment activity,” he was only half kidding about the word “terrifying” — but he was completely serious about the word “good.”
In a split decision, the Cherokee Tribal Council voted Dec. 7 to remove a member of the Tribal Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission who had been appointed to the board during the Patrick Lambert administration.
At 34, Jennifer Pharr Davis has conquered her fair share of long-distance hikes, and then some. Her 2011 hike of the Appalachian Trail set a speed record that stood until 2015. She’s completed the Pacific Crest Trail, the Bartram Trail, the Colorado Trail and a seemingly endless list of other trails scattered across six continents.
But in some ways, her 2017 hike of the North Carolina Mountains-to-Sea Trail was the most challenging — and most rewarding — of all the routes she’s walked.
Business as usual was a difficult thing to achieve at the Western Carolina University Board of Trustees meeting Friday, Dec. 1.
After leading the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority through what will likely become four of the most formative years in the organization’s history, Robert Jumper’s term on the board has ended.
At some point roughly 20 years ago, a shipment from Asia arrived in the United States with a passel of six-legged stowaways lurking in its wooden pallets. Since it was first detected near Detroit in 2002, the emerald ash borer has gnawed its way through ash trees across North America, leaving a swath of destruction across 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces — and counting.
The EAB was first spotted in North Carolina in 2013, when it was confirmed in Granville, Person, Vance and Warren counties, a contiguous area in the central part of the state bordering Virginia. Now it’s present in 33 of the state’s 100 counties and continues to spread. WNC counties with confirmed ash borer infestations are Haywood, Swain, Macon, Graham, Buncombe, Madison, Mitchell and Yancey counties — this month, the N.C. Forest Service found EAB on several trees in the Alarka area of Swain County after the beetle was initially found in Bryson City last summer.
The Sylva pool saw $100,000 in repairs before opening this summer, but more work is on the way to get the facility up to snuff for the years to come.
Located behind the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority treatment plant off North River Road, Southwestern Community College’s shooting range is the go-to training ground for law enforcement officers across the region.
A unanimous vote from the Jackson County commissioners will allow construction of a 185-foot radio tower in Cullowhee to move forward, but the decision came after vocal opposition from six of the seven county residents who spoke at a 3 p.m. public hearing on Monday, Nov. 27.
In its two years of existence, the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians has shown a willingness to travel.
First, from the mind of fly fishing enthusiast Alen Baker to the wood-paneled space of the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce. Then to the sunny Swain County Chamber of Commerce building in downtown Bryson City. And, soon, to a new building on Bryson City’s Island Street, just across the road from the trout-stocked waters of the Tuckasegee River.
Dogs don’t require much to fulfill their material needs — food, water, a comfy napping spot and regular outdoor excursions, and they’re good to go.
What began as an effort to give Western Carolina University’s campus radio station broader coverage could end with construction of a 185-foot tower capable of expanding coverage for emergency communications, broadband and cell service in the Cullowhee area.
Jackson County will pursue a plan to consolidate its health and social services departments following a special-called commissioners meeting held Thursday, Nov. 16.
A final decision on whether to allow Sunday morning alcohol sales in Jackson County won’t come for several months following a request from Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce Director Stephanie Edwards that the public hearing wait until springtime.
When Margo Capparelli, Ph.D., first began her career, she had little idea that it would develop such a strong focus on helping combat veterans that she would one day drop everything to found a retreat center serving them.
But that’s exactly what’s happened. Capparelli, 53, is founder of Equinox Ranch, located on 23 acres in Cullowhee that she hopes to get in shape to begin operations by late spring or early summer in 2018.
Film fever is hitting Sylva as the release of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” draws closer.
The attorney who argued for the impeachment of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert has been issued an order from the Cherokee Tribal Court requiring him to show the court why allegations against him from former Attorney General Danny Davis shouldn’t result in disciplinary action.
It’s hard to find a place inside Western Carolina University’s Catamount School that isn’t buzzing with activity.
After receiving approval from two separate boards, a proposed 80-bedroom development along Little Savannah Road in Cullowhee has the green light to move forward.
Sylva Mayor Lynda Sossamon took home an overwhelming share of the votes in her bid for re-election Nov. 6, easily winning four more years in the mayor’s seat.
Bunny Johns became a paddler mostly by accident.
As a college freshman in the early 1960s, she’d lined up a summer job in her hometown outside of Atlanta but returned to discover the position had fallen through. Then a friend of hers called to say she’d been offered a job teaching swimming at Camp Merrie-Woode in Sapphire but didn’t want to go — maybe Johns, who had been a competitive swimmer in high school, would want to take her place?
Mission Hospital’s decision to let its contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield expire has resulted in increased business for Harris Regional Hospital, with patient admissions this October up about 20 percent over numbers from October 2016.
A brand new emergency department at Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva received its first patients Monday, Nov. 6, marking the end of a project that’s been more than a decade in the making.
Before white settlers corrupted the name to Cullowhee, the land along the Tuckasegee River south of Sylva was known to the Cherokee people as “Joolth-cullah-whee,” or Judaculla’s place.
The FBI’s investigation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Cherokee Agency’s deputy superintendent Ruth Marie Sequoyah McCoy goes far deeper than the charges of marriage fraud that she and 11 others are currently facing, according to recently filed court documents.
About 100 people piled into the exhibit hall at the Cherokee Indian Fair Grounds the evening of Monday, Nov. 6, to tell Tribal Council members what they think about expanding alcohol sales on the Qualla Boundary. The consensus was clear: the tribal members filling the room wanted a referendum, and they wanted to see alcohol sales stay siloed on casino property.
The Smoky Mountain Field School was only a couple years old when Joel Zachary came on as an instructor in 1980. Kathy Zachary — then his girlfriend, now his wife — joined him in 1983, and the field school has been part of their lives ever since.
“We like to say that the success of the program is due to the instructors we have that are so enthusiastic about their topics,” Kathy said. “They have a passion for teaching and sharing, so the person who signs up to take a course really gets that contagious enthusiasm that the instructor shares.”
Through careers as students, teachers and administrators, David and Susan Belcher have marked the milestones of their lives in college campuses, but their 2011 arrival to Western Carolina University was the day they discovered their home.
“It was kind of instant. It was kind of love at first sight,” Susan said. “It’s not the (natural) beauty. It’s the people. And it’s the community also. This region takes care of each other, through and through.”
The Jackson County Tourism Development Authority Board will shrink from 15 members to nine following a unanimous vote from the Jackson County Commissioners Oct. 16.
Former Tribal Council Chairman Bill Taylor is now settling into a new position as the tribe’s governmental affairs liaison after Principal Chief Richard Sneed hired him in October.
Five years ago, Cherokee voters gave a decisive response on a referendum question asking whether they’d like to see the historical ban on alcohol sales outside casino property lifted on the Qualla Boundary, with 60 percent voting to keep Cherokee dry.
It’s a sunny, abnormally warm October afternoon, and Tom Anspach is ready to meet it with a canoe on the Pigeon River.
But Anspach, accompanied by 19-year-old Josh Arford, isn’t there to paddle for miles or fish for trout. He’s there to fish for trash.
The years ahead are likely to be lively ones for the tiny town of Dillsboro, with a new river park and brewery among the most game-changing developments coming down the pike — and seven people are running for five seats on the town’s board of aldermen to see those changes through the next four years.
The Village of Forest Hills could have a new member on the town council depending on the outcome of this year’s general election.
Four people accused of entering into fraudulent marriages with non-U.S. citizens will plead guilty to the charge of marriage fraud, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Charges against two Charlotte teens arrested following the shooting of 21-year-old Jacob Alexander Ray, of Hendersonville, have been upgraded from attempted murder to first-degree murder as of Monday, Oct. 16.
Two short years ago, the backyard of Waynesville’s Grace Church in the Mountains was basically just grass, save for a single container bed at the top of the hill.
These days, the view is quite different. Six long container beds stretch out along the slope from the road to the church’s back door. A scaffolding that held a tent of beans during the warmer months stands to the side, and at the bottom of the hill is yet another group of raised beds, built high at the end of a flat walkway so that people with mobility issues can still access and enjoy them. There’s a toolshed, a gaggle of scarecrows and two in-ground beds dug directly into the land.
Sylva voters might feel a bit of déjà vu when they enter the polling place this year, with both names on the ballot for the mayor’s seat repeats from the 2015 election.
A planned vote on whether to approve Sunday morning alcohol sales was delayed Oct. 16 when the Jackson County Commissioners decided they should hold a formal public hearing before deciding the issue.
Before Karen Walston began running her first extermination route 16 years ago, she had no plans to become The Bug Lady of WNC. At the time, she was doing a part-time office job for a bigger pest control company, but when she asked for more hours she got more than she bargained for.
It’s 3 p.m. on a weekday, a time when any restaurant would be well within its rights to be all but empty. But business at Granny’s Kitchen in Cherokee is humming along steadily, the main parking lot about half full and the hostess busily engaged with fielding phone calls, ringing up customers on their way out and welcoming customers on their way in.
An Oct. 10 runoff election to determine the winner of a disputed Tribal Council seat ended with a reversal of results from the original election.
While the two candidates were separated by only a handful of votes following the Sept. 7 General Election, the margin was much wider Oct. 10. Albert Rose beat challenger Ashley Sessions with 541 votes, or 58.7 percent, to her 381.
Sessions believes her loss was unjust and that there should never have been a runoff election to start with.
“I’m just kind of disappointed and really confused about the entire situation,” she said. “But I definitely think that it’s made our community and our people more aware of how bad the corruption is in our tribal government.”
Rose and challenger Ashley Sessions have been locked in a battle to represent the Birdtown community ever since preliminary results rolled in from the Sept. 7 General Election. Those results showed Sessions trailing Rose by only 12 votes, a margin of 0.7 percent.
When Sessions asked for a recount, election workers found a large number of early voting ballots that the machine had failed to count on election night. These uncounted ballots were largely the result of absentee ballots that had been changed to serve as early voting ballots when election workers ran out of early voting ballots on the last day of early voting. It was the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ first time offering early voting, and election workers underestimated the number of ballots they would need for each community.
The machine did not read the repurposed ballots, leading to a discrepancy between election night and recount results. The recount reversed the original outcome, with Sessions beating Rose by five votes.
“Whenever the recount took place, the chairman of the election board Denise Ballard, she assured me that the recount was final,” Sessions said. “She congratulated me on live TV.”
Rose, however, protested the recount results. Represented by attorney Rob Saunooke, he contended that the “mysteriously appearing” early voting ballots were unreliable. While all Tribal Council candidates in all communities received some additional votes when the discrepancy in Birdtown triggered a recount of all races, the increase in votes was largest in Birdtown. First-place finisher Boyd Owle received the largest boost in the recount, gaining 30 votes.
Rose said that the fact that unmarked early voting ballots were stored in an unlocked box raised suspicion that they could have been tampered with, though he offered no proof that they had. He also said that one person not eligible to vote in Birdtown, a relative of Sessions, had voted in the election.
The election board agreed with Rose and ordered a runoff election, but Sessions challenged the decision in Cherokee Supreme Court. Represented by Scott Jones, she argued that there was nothing mysterious about the initially uncounted ballots and that there was no objective proof that anything untoward capable of affecting the election’s outcome had occurred. However, the court ultimately upheld the board’s decision.
The method of conducting the runoff election was markedly different from that of the General Election. In the runoff, voters were choosing one of two candidates to represent them, rather than selecting two of four like they had in the General Election. The runoff was on a Tuesday rather than on a Thursday, as for regularly scheduled elections.
However, the biggest difference between the two elections was that the runoff allowed no opportunity for absentee or early voting. Some tribal members who live or work away from the Qualla Boundary had made special trips to vote Sept. 7 or ordered absentee ballots to participate.
During the General Election, Sessions did not receive any absentee votes, but according to recount results she received 93 early votes, 63 percent more than the 57 that Rose received. Rose received two absentee votes.
The election issue has been a contentious one in the mist of an already tense political climate in Cherokee. During the controversial impeachment of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert in May, Rose had been consistently pro-impeachment, voting to remove Lambert from office and also testifying during the hearing. Sessions, meanwhile, had been vocally anti-impeachment.
The General Election Sept. 7 swept many pro-impeachment candidates out of office. Rose is one of only three pro-impeachment incumbents who regained a seat on Tribal Council. Seven of the nine pro-impeachment councilmembers had run for re-election. Meanwhile, of the two anti-impeachment councilmembers who ran for re-election, both were the top vote-getters in their communities.
Sessions called her experience running for office as “the biggest roller coaster ride,” and said, while she does plan to remain an active voice in tribal government she’s not sure if she will put her name out there as a candidate in 2019.
“It’s definitely going from making history being the first woman in 60 years to win council in Birdtown to being the first person ever to have a runoff and have an election taken from them,” she said. “It’s definitely been an adventure.”
Rose did not return multiple calls requesting comment. He was not present during Annual Council Monday, Oct. 16, and queries to the Tribal Operations Program asking when his swearing-in might take place were not returned as of press time.
It’s a sunny Friday morning on the Pigeon River when the bucket brigade assembles, five-gallon containers in hand. The stock truck has just arrived, making its way up windy U.S. 276 and down the equally squirrely N.C. 215, tanks loaded with fish and water.
A pair of fish culturists from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission stands atop the truck as a line of bucket-bearers forms leading up to it, and the work begins. Each bucket received a splash of water and a dollop of flipping, fighting trout — rainbow, brown and brook all mixed together in one writhing mass.
A lawsuit seeking to overturn a Board of Elections decision to hold an Oct. 10 runoff election for Birdtown Tribal Council failed last week when the Cherokee Supreme Court delivered an opinion upholding the board’s decision.
A late-night shooting near the Western Carolina University campus Friday, Oct. 6, has left a student dead.
Denial of a permit to build a 388-bed student housing complex in Cullowhee will land Jackson County in court after Atlanta-based Mallory & Evans Development filed a motion asking for a judge to overturn the decision.
Darby Harris is going on a bike ride Saturday, Oct. 7, but how far he’ll pedal will be a mystery until he wakes up that morning.
Harris’ ride will be fueled by donations to the Western Carolina University Biology Club, with each $10 gift buying 1 mile. And, with the planned route to the top of Mount Mitchell totaling 11,000 feet of climbing, each mile will be a hard-won victory. It’s 110 miles from WCU’s Stillwell Building to the top of the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River, meaning that the Biology Club will have to raise $1,100 to get him all the way there.
The Jackson County Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Sept. 18 that will limit referendum votes on sales tax increases and bonds to elections when turnout is highest.
Uproar over the results of an election recount in the race to represent Cherokee’s Birdtown community on Tribal Council has culminated in a decision to hold a runoff race between contenders Albert Rose and Ashley Sessions — and a lawsuit arguing that the decision was an “egregious error of law.”
The attorney general of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians appointed during the administration of Principal Chief Patrick Lambert has decided to resign from his position, his last day Sept. 22 coming just 17 months after his April 2016 appointment.
