Central Elementary School has become a rallying cry for advocates of public education across the state.

The imminent closing of Central Elementary School in Waynesville is fueling heated debate on many fronts. A small school in many ways is like a sun around which the lives of children, families, teachers, cafeteria workers and a community orbit, a center that brings purposeful togetherness to an otherwise random group of people. 

That’s the human element, and most of those in that orbit are hurting badly right now. But a school is also an arm of government that is paid for by our tax dollars. That money should be spent wisely. Central is very small and losing more students each year, the economies of scale tipping out of balance as children move to other schools, as families decide to home school or go to a charter school, as kids age up and go to middle school and fewer elementary age families move into the district.

A devoted customer stood at the counter at Walker Service chatting with Clayton Cathey before picking up his truck for what may be the last time.   

“What’s this rumor I hear about you closing?” the customer asked.

A feasibility report on the potential closure of Central Elementary School in Waynesville was released by Haywood County Schools last week.

Tonight (Nov. 10) at 7 p.m., the N.C. Department of Transportation will close the westbound on-ramp to Interstate 40 at Exit 37 (Wiggins Road/East Canton Exit). The ramp is expected to reopen at 6 a.m.  Tuesday morning.

A small section of the Blue Ridge Parkway,  between Milepost 420 (near Black Balsam Road) and Milepost 423 (at Hwy. 215), will be closed from Nov. 3 through May 2015. 

One the Blue Ridge Parkway’s most popular recreation areas will soon be closing for construction. The Graveyard Fields parking area and trailhead, at milepost 418.8, will close for approximately 11 weeks beginning April 22. 

The U.S. Postal Service wants to close Fontana Dam’s tiny post office to save money, a downsizing move critics say would further isolate the small community.

This far-flung outpost in Graham County is frequented by tourists, and serves as a vital waypoint for thousands of hikers on the Appalachian Trail.

Despite the region’s remote location, it turns into a bustling place in the summer with throngs of tourists coming to Fontana Village Resort — as well as an influx of seasonal workers topping more than 140. Those seasonal workers rely on post office boxes to get their mail, with so much demand some years the Fontana post office has run out of post office boxes.

Residents also rely on the post office boxes, according to Craig Litz, an employee at Fontana Village Resort.

“You have a significant number of people who live in the village,” Litz said. “Their round trip to the next closest post office is 45 miles.”

And it will hurt the resort as well, he said.

“From a business standpoint we have tons of guests at Fontana Village resort who forget stuff that we have to mail back to them,” Litz said. That would now require a trek to town every time grandma left or glass or junior left this favorite stuffed animal behind after their stay.

The next closest post office is in Robbinsville or the Nantahala Gorge, a 45-mile trip respectively. Factor in the slow speeds required on the curvy, twisty roads, and a trip to the post office would require a two-hour investment.

The community, just this year, become a bonafide town. The new town is home to only 33 fulltime residents, but that population number is deceptive: about 100,000 people a year visit the resort.

Appalachian Trail woes

The Fontana post office is perhaps most critical, however, to hikers along the Appalachian Trail.

The long-distance hiker traversing the 2,200-mile trail from Georgia to Maine mail themselves care packages, as do friends and family, full of needed supplies.

“Everything from food to extra socks,” Litz said.

The Fontana post office is a key drop point for these care packages.

“In the spring time, we have a room dedicated just to stuff from the hikers,” Litz said. That’s when thru-hikers doing the entire trail are coming through in waves of 30 a day.

Hikers also use the post office to send unneeded equipment back home, such as winter jackets they started the trail with but no longer need. Fontana Dam is just 1.8 miles from the trail.

“It’s very important — Fontana is part of the long-distance hiking experience, and part of the logistics of resupply,” said Laurie Potteiger, an AT thru-hike veteran and information services manager for the Appalachian Trail Conference, headquartered in Harpers Ferry, W. Va.

Fontana Dam is the first post office hikers hit after starting the trail in Georgia, once any distance under way, that’s in such close proximity to the trail.

The proposed closure is part of a broader cost savings measures by the U.S. Post Office. Last week the postal service announced it would study whether to close nearly 3,700 local offices and branches because of falling revenues. Facing an $8.3 billion budget deficit this year, closing post offices is one of several proposals the Postal Service has recently considered to cut costs, and one of three that are drop points for Appalachian Trail hikers.

Fontana’s leaders are fighting the proposed closure. They have appealed to U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, for help.

Shuler hopes to stop the closure, spokesman Andrew Whalen said this week.

“We are doing our best to ensure it stays open,” Whalen said Tuesday. “We’re drafting a formal appeal to the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission.”

Three weeks after federal officials rolled into town and abruptly shut down the Oconaluftee Jobs Corps Center in Swain County, the reasons for the closure are still being debated.

Sinquarious Graham, a 16-year-old Job Corps student from Alabama, was pulling on his coat to go to breakfast at 6:30 a.m. last Thursday when his roommate came in and told him class was canceled, he could go back to bed.