Downtown Sylva to get more free parking
Years of complaining by Sylva merchants that there isn’t enough parking downtown has spurred the Sylva town board to lease…
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Public outcry pushes Duke to consider new substation site
Duke Energy wants an option to buy land at the Swain County Industrial Park with the intention of using it…
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WCU grad drowns during tubing trip
A river tubing trip on a sunny day ended in tragedy last week when a recent Western Carolina University grad…
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Apartment complex fills unmet need in WNC
The demand for stress-free, turnkey living was largely an untapped market in the region until the recent debut of VantagePointe…
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Haywood budget cuts pose hardship for some library users
Kaleigh Davis, 12, comes to the Haywood County Public Library with her aunt Marlene Arrington almost every Thursday night. Arrington…
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Trash controversy dominates Haywood budget discussion
When the hour finally arrived for Haywood County commissioners to vote on a budget for the upcoming year, Haywood County…
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Towns demand parity in Haywood trash plan
There was one thing Haywood County commissioners, town officials, private haulers and county employees could all agree upon at last…
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Lake Junaluska at risk of losing most meaningful conference
Despite its peaceful atmosphere and long history as a spiritual center for Methodists, Lake Junaluska may lose the annual United…
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Civil suit targeting Jackson sheriff fails
“The only reasonable verdict here is for Sheriff Ashe,” Patrick Flanagan told the jury. “He did not commit any wrongdoing…
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Strand project kick started with state grant
Hidden behind 16 feet of Main Street storefront, the inside of The Strand Theater looks like a cave. The floor…
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Perdue gets enthusiastic welcome in Waynesville
Gov. Beverly Perdue visited Main Street Friday to announce that Waynesville received a $300,000 grant from the state’s Main Street…
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Jackson library campaign marks success, new goals
On May 25 the Friends of the Jackson County Main Library marked the completion of their astonishing two-year fundraising drive,…
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Waynesville bookstore changes ownership
Waynesville residents may soon notice the sign on Main Street’s Blue Ridge Books & Café switched out for a new…
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What is Buy Haywood?
Supported by the Golden LEAF Foundation since 2007, Buy Haywood has enjoyed success promoting the county’s farms. Its first project…
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Haywood County 911 director calls for help
Haywood County’s technology director Kristy Wood wasn’t exactly latching onto the hope that commissioners would grant her $2.8 million budget…
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Cherokee passport checkpoint a fun reminder
Martie Hoofer was driving her motorcycle into Cherokee from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park when an Anikituhwa warrior dressed…
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Swain County to air proposed zoning ordinance
In March Swain County commissioners voted to enact a moratorium that put a halt to Duke Energy’s substation project on…
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County power struggle surfaces in Finn v. Ashe trial
“Putting Mr. Finn out of business is not a duty of the Jackson County sheriff. Is that a fair statement?”…
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Linking farmers to restaurants not always easy
On one side are local farmers, toiling from dawn to dusk, trying to compete in an increasingly globalized economy. On…
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New venture welcomed by downtown business community
Downtown Waynesville merchants hope a plan to remodel the old Strand theater as an entertainment venue, restaurant and microbrewery will…
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Students take lettuce from greenhouse to cafeteria
It doesn’t get much fresher than this. Horticulture students at Smoky Mountain High School in Sylva are helping to feed…
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From garden to table in Sylva
In Sylva, the buy local mantra is being reinterpreted as grow your own. Volunteers at the Community Table, a nonprofit…
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Men who built Blue Ridge Parkway recount hard work, dangerous conditions
Lorin Shaw was barely 16 when he landed a job with a crew building the Blue Ridge Parkway in the…
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County cuts to recreation saddle towns with added costs
In the eyes of Canton’s town leaders, the status quo in recreation funding just isn’t cutting it. For years, the…
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Sylva parking shortage in the eye of the beholder
A parking study of downtown Sylva conducted by a Western Carolina University graduate student has gotten local merchants talking and…
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Angel Medical, Mission consider partnership
Angel Medical Center in Franklin may soon come under the wing of Mission Hospital in Asheville. Smaller, rural hospitals are…
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Engineers still honing plan to stabilize remnants of Maggie landslide
Once repair work is complete, a precarious Maggie Valley mountainside destabilized by a major mudslide will be returned to its…
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The tribe’s audit is bound to cause bitterness
How do you kick out a member of a Native American tribe? The Eastern Band of Cherokee is about to…
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Downtown Waynesville entertainment venture wins state grant
A downtown Waynesville project that would put a live entertainment venue, a microbrewery and a pizza restaurant together in the…
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Friends of Jackson library finish fundraising miracle with help from federal stimulus money
The Friends of the Jackson County Main Library have completed their remarkable effort to raise $1.6 million to outfit the…
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Graham to vacate spot on Sylva board, but not until casting vote for next year’s budget
Sylva Commissioner Sarah Graham will step down from the town board at the end of June because her family has…
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America’s Favorite Journey
The Blue Ridge Parkway unravels gracefully across the landscape, at times suspended from high cliffs and etched into rocky crags,…
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Plans in hand, but money isn’t for Haywood park
$6,342,044. That’s approximately how much money needs to be raised before Haywood County residents can expect to see a recreation…
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Jackson County rides out budget storm unscathed
Jackson County Manager Ken Westmoreland said he would deliver a balanced budget with no cuts to services or staff and…
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Grant propels Waynesville skate park, but the price tag is still daunting
Ten-year-old Waynesville resident Zeb Powell has exclusive, 24-7 access to a skate park in town — it’s in his driveway.…
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New owners take long view on Balsam Mountain Preserve
As one development after another began to bite the dust two years ago, lenders who had bankrolled the mountain building…
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The EBCI enrollment audit at a glance
What is the enrollment audit? A review of the nearly 14,000 people on the tribe’s roll to determine whether they…
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Proposed road calls for bridge over N.C. 107 in Jackson
A new road that would traverse the campus of Southwestern Community College and provide a new link between two of…
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Haywood commissioners take heat for planned overhaul of trash and recycling
Haywood County commissioners are fighting opposition on all fronts after a county task force recently recommended major changes to trash…
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Cherokee enrollment quandary leads to talk of DNA testing
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is talking about moving to DNA testing as a way of verifying the blood…
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Bear gets put down after close encounter with Smokies visitor
A visitor in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park got nipped on the foot by a bear after getting too…
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Sylva cardboard box venture collapses
Stonewall Packaging, a cardboard plant in Sylva, laid off 43 workers last week and shut down operations after coming on…
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Farmers markets welcome the growing season
While the summer bounty of tomatoes, corn and green beans are still a couple of months away, there is still…
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Haywood commissioners balk at state plan for secondary roads
Counties usually have no choice but to accept unfunded mandates from the state, but this time, Haywood County commissioners are…
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HCC building feud persists unresolved
Haywood Community College leaders have chipped away more than $430,000 worth of features from its proposed creative arts building, but…
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Tribe plans to expand gambling reach
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians plans to build a Class II gaming facility in Cherokee County, but the project…
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Maggie slide victims still living in limbo
More than three months have come and gone since a major mudslide crashed through Maggie Valley’s Rich Cove community, and…
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Ghost Town owner Harper daunted but not deterred
As Al Harper watched the national recession undermine ticket sales at Ghost Town amusement park over the past two years,…
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Ghost Town saga reaches deeper into WNC
Western North Carolina is a patchwork of small communities, close-knit groups operating independently to make their own town or area…
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Cecil Groves leaves SCC with a legacy of regional growth
In 1970, Cecil Groves was the 30-year-old provost of Delgado College. The city of New Orleans was on fire, rent…
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