Sylva’s pub-lovers got a shock this summer when a closed sign appeared on O’Malley’s Sports Bar and Grill June 2.

White dots will soon pepper the sidewalks of downtown Sylva as the town sets out to claim its identity as a trail town and mark the official route of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which runs through Sylva on its way from Clingmans Dome to the Outer Banks.

The trail traverses the state of North Carolina, offering a walking route 1,175 miles long that, true to its name, takes hikers from the state’s highest mountains to its interface with the sea. And a section of the trail travels right through downtown Sylva, something that Sylva attorney and Friends of the MST board member Jay Coward is urging town leaders to capitalize on. He also has plans to speak to the Dillsboro Board of Aldermen.

A leaking pipe in downtown Sylva has resulted in a sinkhole that’s had the road connecting the town’s main streets closed since Thursday.

With a bigger local labor pool and a tourism season that wraps around most of the year, hiring in Sylva is an easier proposition than it is for Cashiers businesses — at least, that’s how City Lights Café owner Bernadette Peters sees it. 

If all goes according to plan, within the week folks in Jackson County will have their choice of pools to soak in the summer as renovations finish up at the Sylva and Cashiers pools. 

One year after the town’s tax rate rose by 12.5 cents per $100, Sylva is considering a proposed $3.7 million budget that will keep tax rates level and cover the town’s operating needs — but will come up short on addressing capital needs and commissioners’ desired projects. 

In an effort to consolidate women’s and children’s services in Franklin, Mission Health has announced it will be closing those practices in Sylva.

The key element of bluegrass music is the “unspoken” — in practice, in performance and in personality. 

Whether you’re 8 years old or 80, the foundation of bluegrass lies in its traditions, where knowledge and technique is passed down through the generations. That transition of wisdom is found while strumming in a field at a festival with strangers, chugging along onstage in the heat of a jam with your friends, or pickin’ and grinnin’ on a back porch with family members.

When it comes to carnivorous plants, Darwin Thomas knows what he’s talking about. It doesn’t take much to get him started on a fact-filled tangent about the plants’ prey preferences, proper care and feeding, or histories. But Thomas, a heating and air technician by trade, didn’t learn any of it by sitting in a class somewhere. 

“I read a lot of books, and just talking to people too,” Thomas said. “I’ve not had any education at all in anything to do with this. I just learned over the years. And after 28 years, I think I’ve learned how to grow them.”

Mill Street will be getting a makeover after Sylva’s board of commissioners approved funding for the lane reduction project in a 4-1 vote.