When most people think about Folkmoot, they doubtlessly think about the huge 10-day international folk dance festival that has taken over Western North Carolina each July for more than three decades. 

A recent designation by the North Carolina Department of Commerce could have a detrimental impact on Haywood County’s economic development efforts.

In the first installment of this series on Haywood County’s economic development, the analogy of a bathtub was used to illustrate the county’s economy: water flows in, water drains out and the freeboard is always changing, but amidst all the splashing, insular yet interconnected bubbles of industry rise and fall and swell and pop.

Two conservative activists in Haywood County have been banned from Republican Party functions under the threat of trespassing charges from state party officials.

It came as a shock that has had a ripple effect within music circles around Western North Carolina and beyond.

A recovering economy and low unemployment along with a 30 percent increase in tourist spending since 2011 has kept Haywood County in decent financial shape, but a few large expenses — married with the everyday needs of a 60,000-resident county — means a tax hike may be coming.

Offering “credit where credit is due,” Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, congratulated Gov. Roy Cooper for recently signing a bill that will do away with vehicle emissions testing in Haywood County. 

The strange saga of a shuttered school still casts a shadow over Haywood County, but it may turn out that opponents of the school’s closing were exactly right. 

A complaint filed in Haywood County Superior Court late last month alleges that several defendants committed battery and inflicted emotional distress on two children in 2015.

Among the various organizations involved in economic development, one often finds a Chamber of Commerce and some development organization.