The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy has transferred 1,060 acres in Haywood County to the State of North Carolina to become part of public lands managed by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.

These tracts include land for the Cold Mountain Game Land and Pisgah Game Lands, including the 409-acre White Oak Mountain tract adjoining the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that SAHC purchased in December 2024.

The Fontana Regional Library Board of Trustees is again struggling to implement changes as it trudges forward without legal representation. 

At the Nov. 12 meeting, held in Jackson County, Cynthia Womble, who in September resigned her position as board chair but remains on the board, again expressed concern that Rady Large, an attorney who worked with the board on a pro bono basis, took a new job and couldn’t continue that service.

Macon County voters will again have the chance to raise their sales tax by a quarter cent, from 6.75 to 7 cents on the dollar, a measure that unlike raising property taxes would impact not only locals, but also visitors who shop and dine in the area. 

After months of tension between Jackson County and the Fontana Regional Library system, commissioners appear to be charting a new course — one that could ultimately reverse their June decision to withdraw from the regional library partnership. 

At the very end of their Nov. 4 meeting, Jackson commissioners discussed three proposed amendments to the Fontana Regional Library interlocal agreement. 

Sen. Thom Tillis’ 2025 Lumbee Fairness Act is inching toward the finish line, allowing for full federal recognition of about 60,000 North Carolinians closer to their goal, albeit nearly 140 years after their first government petition. 

The U.S. Department of Labor has released additional funds to help North Carolinians get back to work in areas affected by Hurricane Helene.

The new funds, totaling $4 million, represent the remaining portion of a $10 million Disaster Recovery Dislocated Worker Grant that the DOL initially awarded to North Carolina in 2024 in the wake of Helene.

Gov. Josh Stein announced $6 million in grants from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Flood Resiliency Blueprint program to help reduce flood risks across the state. The announcement includes projects to restore the French Broad River Basin after western North Carolina experienced catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Helene last fall.

Hurricane Helene recovery czar Michael Whatley is blaming Democrats for the growing chorus of criticism over his job performance — but in heavily Republican Western North Carolina, it’s not just Democratic voices calling for Whatley to be replaced or step down. 

To the Editor:

Mountain Projects is proud to be a trusted Community Action Agency, serving Haywood and Jackson counties since 1965. Families and individuals rely on our programs each day for support, opportunity, and stability — and our doors must remain open to serve them. 

On Oct. 1, Republican-controlled Congress shut down the federal government, bringing a renewed round of confusion, finger-pointing and uncertainty to tourism-reliant Southern Appalachia — a region still paying the price for generational poverty, and still struggling with recovery from Hurricane Helene more than one year ago.