The Maggie Valley Police Department will see minimal cuts to its new budget despite multiple discussions about whether the small valley has more officers than it needs.

The budget was cut by $55,000 to $854,000. The town will postpone replacing two police cars.

Business, civic and government leaders from all over Haywood County gathered last week to officially kick off Hunger Free Haywood, a countywide effort to address hunger.

All the collections will stay in Haywood County and be distributed by county food pantries.

The Internet and smartphones are turning brick-and-mortar visitor centers into an antiquated resource for travelers and are part of the reason why the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority plans close two of its four visitor centers in the next year.

By Paul Clark  • Contributor •

Norris Bunch called his dog Maxo to attention. Maxo, alert and ready, waited for his release.

Barbara Holt, a judge for the U.S. Police Canine Association, gave the go-ahead, and Bunch, a K9 handler at the nuclear Savannah River Site, shouted for Maxo to move.

Laser-quick, Maxo charged toward the “decoy” – a fellow K9 officer acting as a criminal suspect. The decoy had a 25-yard head start on the football field at Waynesville Middle School. And, he certainly had the sympathy of the civilians spending a sunny June morning watching the police dog trials from the stands.

Canton may end up defending its use of the property known as Camp Hope in court this August.

John and Deborah Prelaz have filed a lawsuit against the town asking that Canton’s claim to the 38.15-acre property be deemed null and void after it allegedly violated the terms of the deed. The deed requires the town to use the land for recreational purposes that benefit mostly Haywood County residents and those in surrounding counties.

Maggie Valley’s will no longer employ a festival director effective Sept. 5 — a decision that comes as no surprise to town leaders or the festival director herself.

“I had a sneaking suspicion with the new direction,” said Festival Director Audrey Hager, referencing the town board’s multiple assertions that it wants out of the festival business. “I kind of knew it was coming because it’s a totally different strategy than the previous board.”

Downtown Waynesville will transform into a Mecca for Appalachian heritage geeks and for people who want to learn more about the area’s distinct culture this Saturday as the town hosts its second annual Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration.

The Downtown Waynesville Association held the festival for the first time last year to help preserve and promote the history and culture of Western North Carolina. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 9.

Similar to Haywood County’s many other cultural events, such as Folkmoot, the celebration focuses on a topic of particular interest for visitors —  Appalachian living.

“The Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration is great for tourists,” said Lynn Collins, executive director of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority. “It gives our visitors a taste of what mountain living is like, along with its rich history. When people travel to Haywood County, or anywhere, they want to experience the culture of the destination.”

Out-of-towners’ fascination with Appalachian heritage is not a new revelation.

Hundreds of years ago, travelers journeyed to Western North Carolina to savor its “exotic” traditions and mountainous backwoods. And despite increased mobility and Internet access, the reasons for visiting today are still much the same as they ever were.

“It’s part of a long history of outsiders being interested in this history,” said Tyler Blethen, a professor emeritus of history at Western Carolina University. “It’s an exotic place.”

In some old writings, people would refer to the trip from their home to Western North Carolina as a safari because of its unfamiliar customs and distinctive landscape. People would travel from all over — and still do — to see the Cherokee people, observe local practices and buy traditional Appalachian goods.

“Music and crafts were the two biggest drawers,” Blethen said.

The Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration embraces that historic interest by featuring a bit of everything — from blacksmithing, quilting, weaving, woodworking, pottery, painting and soap making to food vendors that serve only traditional foods such as barbecue, smoked sausage, beans and cornbread, corn and cheese cakes, fried apple pies, kettle corn and nuts.

Mountain artists will sell their traditional crafts and show how they are made, while others give live food demonstrations such as molasses making and butter churning.

Two stages will feature live music and dancing indigenous to the area, including dulcimers, banjos, fiddles and cloggers. Musical performances include Chompin’ at the Bit String Band, Barefoot-Movement and Michael Reno Harrell.

Chompin’ at the Bit String Band and Barefoot Movement are two new bands to Waynesville. The two groups will perform with the Smoky Mountain Stompers and the J Creek Cloggers.

The Liars Bench, a two-year old program featuring authentic, traditional Southern Appalachian storytelling, music, poetry and drama, will take up residence at Main Street Perks coffee shop Saturday. Members of the group will perform two shows at 1 and 2:30 p.m. And, Blue Ridge Books will feature a line-up of authors telling local tales.

Fiddler Michael Pilgrim will roam the street playing Appalachian melodies, and a variety of performers — The Ross Brothers, Anne Lough, Ginny McAfee, McKayla Reece, Chompin’ at the Bit and the Pisgah Promenaders — will also sing and dance from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. near the Olde Time Music sculpture.

www.downtownwaynesville.com.

Schedule of events

South-end stage near Church Street

• 9:45-10:45 a.m. — Chompin’ at the Bit String Band, a four-member old-time string band from Asheville.

• 11-11:45 a.m. — Honey Holler, a four-person old-time country and bluegrass group out of Asheville.

• Noon-1:15 p.m. — Chompin’ at the Bit String Band will perform again with square dancing at 12:15 p.m. and the J Creek Cloggers at 12:30 p.m.

• 1:30-2:30 p.m. — Michael Reno Harrell, an Americana singer-songwriter.

• 2:45-3:30 p.m. — The Ross Brothers, a family band from Waynesville playing old-style Appalachian music.

• 3:45-5 p.m. — Chompin’ at the Bit String Band plays with Smoky Mountain Stompers, a clogging troupe

Courthouse Stage near Depot Street

• 9:45-10:45 p.m. —  Barefoot Movement, a trio from North Carolina and Tennessee that melds Americana influences with acoustic modern rock and jazz

• 11 a.m.-noon — Michael Reno Harrell

• 12:15-1:15 p.m. — Barefoot Movement performs with the J Creek Cloggers

• 1:30-2:15 p.m. — Honey Holler

• 2:30-4 p.m. — Barefoot Movement plays with the Smoky Mountain Stompers at 3 p.m. and the J Creek Cloggers at 3:45 p.m.

• 4-5 p.m. — Ginny McAfee, an acoustic musician from Asheville, and McKayla Reece, a country/gospel singer from Canton

Blue Ridge Books

The Main Street bookstore will host a line-up of author discussions revolving around Appalachian history and life from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• 11 a.m. — Joan Routh, a local storyteller who shares the Jack Tales, a collection of Appalachian folklore.

• Noon — Michael Beadle, the author of Haywood County and co-author of Waynesville, both of which are part of the Images of America series.

• 1 p.m. — Don Dudenbostel with Tom Wilson Jester: the photographer and the author of the new Popcorn Sutton book, Popcorn Sutton: the Making and Marketing of a Hillbilly Hero.

• 2 p.m. — Bob Plott, the author of Strike & Stay: the Story of the Plott Hound, Legendary Hunters of the Southern Highlands, Colorful Characters of the Great Smoky Mountains, and A History of Hunting in the Great Smoky Mountains will share his knowledge of Appalachian history. One of his Plott Hounds will also accompany him.

• 3 p.m. — Carroll Jones, the author of Captain Lenoir’s Diary: Tom Lenoir and His Civil War Company from Western North Carolina, The 25th North Carolina Troops in the Civil War, and Rooted Deep in the Pigeon Valley. Learn about the local civil war history.

• 4 p.m. — Johnnie Sue Myers, the author of Cherokee cookbook The Gathering Place. Learn the recipes and the history of Cherokee cuisine.

Main Street Perks

• 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. — The Liars Bench, a two-year old program featuring authentic, traditional Southern Appalachian storytelling, music, poetry and drama, will perform.

*Performance schedule subject to change

Rising health care costs were the catalyst for two budget decisions by Haywood County commissioners, one that will hopefully save taxpayer money and the other a stopgap measure to keep up with employee health insurance.

Commissioners were forced this week to pay an additional $150,000 into the health insurance fund for retired employees who are under 65 — twice what was budgeted.

Commissioners seemed surprised over the increase.

“Should we be concerned about this?” asked Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick. “We have a liability, and it is going up. It is more than twice the budgeted amount.”

The rise is due mostly to an increase in the number of retired workers under 65. When the county down-sized its work force during the recession, it offered early retirement options to workers under 65, and so the number of former employees in this category has now risen. The county only pays a portion of the health insurance for employees who retire before 65.

Stamey said the cost for retired employee health insurance would almost certainly continue to rise, however. The county also had to pay an additional $27,000 into the fund for employees over 65.

He hopes switching to almost exclusively generic drugs — unless a brand name is prescribed for medical reasons — could provide huge savings and is working on implementing that change.

Commissioners also voted unanimously to enter into a contract with Southern Health Partners to provide medical care for inmates at the county jail.

This fiscal year, the county will spend an estimated $230,000 on medical care for inmates, from dental work to prescription meds to doctor’s check-ups. By contracting out the lion’s share of inmate health care to a private firm, the county hopes to knock about $25,000 off its costs.

The contract with SHP is $134,888 a year but doesn’t cover everything. In addition to doctor and nurse visits, it only covers the first $30,000 in hospital visits, pharmaceuticals and specialist care. After that amount runs out, the county will be on the hook for whatever additional costs are incurred in those areas.

In addition to the contract with SHP, the county is budgeting another $70,000 for inmate medical care.

Commissioners still hope the contract can save a few dollars.

Haywood’s detention facility averages about 75 inmates a night, and the county is legally obligated to provide medical care for inmates under its watch.

While the coming year’s projected savings are modest, commissioners say the contract should help.

“We all hope this will reduce inmate healthcare costs and provide a solution to overall rising costs,” said Commission Chairman Mark Swanger.

— By Scott McLeod

The Haywood County Quilt Trails project is bringing tourists to Haywood County with the colorful display of traditional quilting patterns.

The Quilt Trail joined several other trails in Western North Carolina in November 2010. That made WNC the largest concentrated area of quilt trails in the nation. The trails give tourists an opportunity to see rural areas that they would not have seen before. Vacationers are traveling to Clyde, Canton, Waynesville and Maggie Valley to see bright quilt squares while getting a taste of the heritage as they explore the county, according to the county Tourism Development Authority.

Haywood County has 14 squares, with about 9 more going up in the coming weeks. A walking quilt trail is planned for Downtown Waynesville.

www.haywoodquilttrails.org.

Haywood County will help ease the burden faced by towns as they start trucking their trash all the way to the county’s far-flung landfill.

County commissioners will allocate more than $100,000 to towns to help cover the added cost of the trash journey, from more trash workers to extra trash trucks. Starting this summer, the county will no longer allow towns and commercial trash services to bring their loads to a mid-point trash transfer station in Clyde and instead will make them go all the way to the White Oak landfill, an extra hour or more roundtrip.

During a public hearing on the county budget this week, commissioners made a point to highlight the county’s contribution to towns’ trash operations.

The county will save hundreds of thousands by closing the transfer station to town and commercial trash trucks but will share some of those savings back with the towns to offset the burden and ideally prevented town residents trash rates from going up.

The county will pay the towns of Waynesville, Canton and Clyde $15 for each household that they pick up garbage from.

“All of them were very supportive of that funding formula,” said County Manager Marty Stamey.

Clyde will receive $7,500; Canton will get $23,700; and Waynesville will be allocated $80,670.

The goal of the money is to prevent towns from having to pass the buck onto their residents. Canton and Clyde have committed to not raising their rates.

“The whole concept of this was to alleviate the burden on those citizens,” Stamey said.

However, Waynesville is still recommending a rate increase, though the amount is unknown.

“What the county is offering us doesn’t come anywhere close to what the additional costs will be,” said former Town Manager Lee Galloway, who is acting as a consultant for the town until July. The estimated cost of hauling its own trash to White Oak is $160,000.

Galloway added that the town appreciates the money that the county is able to provide.

The county hopes the contribution will be an annual allocation, according Stamey.

The county already subsidizes the trash journey to White Oak for county residents who don’t live inside the town limits. County residents without town trash pick-up drop their garbage at dumpster lots located in communities throughout the county. The county then pays to have it trucked to White Oak.

Maggie won’t see any assistance, because for it, the White Oak landfill isn’t any further than the transfer station in Clyde.

Fire tax districts

Residents served by the North Canton and Maggie Valley fire departments will see a 1-cent increase in their fire district taxes next year. The fire tax is tacked on to people’s property tax bills based on every $100 of property valuation.

At the budget public hearing this week, commissioners invited people involved with the North Canton and Maggie Valley fire departments to talk briefly about the tax increases each requested.

The North Canton Volunteer Fire Department has asked for a one-cent increase in its tax rate next year. The current rate is 5.5 cents.

The rate is “considerably lower than other fire departments” in the county and will increase for one year only, said Board Chairman Mark Swanger.

The extra cent will augment the fire department’s budget so it can replace aging gear. The department has already saved $25,000.

“But, we need some more to do that,” said Ben Williamson, chairman of board of North Canton Volunteer Fire Department.

The Maggie Valley Fire Department has also asked for an one-cent increase to help pay for more full-time employees to man the building 24-7. Eventually, the added revenue might be used for new gear as well.

“The big thing is personnel,” said Jan Pressley, who spoke on behalf of the department.

The new employees could mean a lower insurance rates for residents in the valley.