Sussy Huskey has learned that life can take you in many directions — some planned and others unexpected — but the important thing is to keep moving. 

Four years after a state landslide mapping project for Jackson County was axed midstream, the commissioners are moving toward a vote to fund the work out of county coffers.

Following discovery that a March suicide in the Jackson County Detention Center had occurred during an 85-minute gap in jailers’ rounds — the state minimum requirement is 30 minutes — the N.C. Department of Health and Human Resources took a second look at a November 2014 suicide that resulted in the death of Robbinsville resident Charles Moose, 36.

Jackson County residents will avoid a tax hike for one more year, if commissioners choose to adopt the proposed budget for 2015-16.

Mark Jones has never voted for a tax increase before, but the Jackson County Commissioner joined the rest of the board in favor of instituting a fire tax for the Cashiers and Highlands areas of the county last week.

Jackson County Commissioners were upset to discover last week that no one’s been enforcing the county’s mountain and hillside development ordinance for more than two years.

Jackson County planning and code enforcement staff will be pouring through two years’ worth of building permits and retroactively inspecting certain projects after learning no one has been enforcing the county’s Mountain and Hillside Development ordinance for more than two years.

Commissioners in Jackson County are moving forward with a plan to scrap their policy of contracting legal services with a private attorney in favor of hiring a full-time staff attorney. At a recent work session, they gave County Manager Chuck Wooten the go-ahead to advertise the position and include more than $100,000 in salary, benefits and associated expenses in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2015-16.

The business end of Jackson County Planner Gerald Green’s departure — who will be in charge of finding a replacement, what the timeline might be — was a necessary topic of discussion at last week’s county commissioner meeting, but commissioners prefaced the logistics with a unified lament over his leaving.

A stalemate over whether to raise property taxes in Sylva ended last week with the majority of town board members opting to take money out of the town’s reserve fund to cover a $140,000 projected shortfall in next year’s budget.