Bob Clark • Guest Columnist | The request to the Haywood County commissioners from the Sheriff’s Department for $15 million to expand the county jail helped create a great opportunity for the commissioners. That opportunity arose when a significant, broad-based and factual public response was made questioning whether some of that money wouldn’t be better spent to help people stay out of jail as well as out of our clogged court system.

J.D. Moore started his first year at Tuscola in 1999. He was an athlete, played football and basketball. He learned pretty quickly the parts of the school that he needed to avoid, parts where the rebel flag was more ubiquitous and racial slurs were directed at him more frequently. 

In its 15 years together, Papadosio has remained on a steady, upward trajectory as one of the premier jam-bands currently roaming the innovative and ever-evolving live music scene. 

Western North Carolina Republicans have introduced a bill in the General Assembly that would result in substantial changes to the room occupancy tax in Haywood County and the creation of a new tax for Bryson City. 

It’s been an open secret for a while now, but two-term incumbent Democratic Sheriff of Haywood County Greg Christopher made it official last weekend — he’s not running for a third term.

Many people in the high-risk category for COVID-19 began isolating themselves at home last March to wait out the pandemic, but not Virginia Wall. 

Lisa Leatherwood, Administrator at Silver Bluff Village, has had a unique perspective of the mayhem that is the COVID-19 pandemic — health care worker, nursing home administrator, mother. 

Founded in the 1950s, Camp Henry’s history is rooted in the logging operations that once dominated the area. Indeed, the Haywood County camp’s mile-long lake was created when the site of a former logging camp was dammed up, but now the 300-acre property on the edge of the Pisgah National Forest is looking to build upon last year’s successes just as the nation starts to take its first tentative steps past the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

Although the results of Haywood County’s comprehensive revaluation process haven’t yet been mailed out, county administrators and elected officials want property owners to prepare for what’s coming in terms of potential changes to their property’s value. 

It’s a rivalry that runs as deep as the waters of Lake Logan and as wide as the Pigeon River that snakes its way through this county of 60,000, but this year the annual Pisgah-Tuscola football game has already taken on a significance that extends far beyond the borders of Haywood County.