The Jackson County ‘Headwaters District’ Conservation Plan seeks to apply an objective, fact-based approach to assessing the conservation and development priorities of communities within the southern half of Jackson County.

A series of recent bomb threats to multiple targets across Waynesville has law enforcement asking for tips that could help with arrests. 

On April 14, the Hazelwood Ingles was evacuated due to a threat, the seventh in 10 days according to Waynesville Police Chief David Adams. Previously, Walmart had been evacuated at least twice.

“We don’t have any leads right now,” Adams said. “We definitely need the public’s help.”

Adams said his department had received assistance from the State Bureau of Investigation and that they were reviewing videotape from the incidents, which appear to involve written threats in bathrooms.

Anyone with information about the messages can submit an anonymous tip through the town’s police app, by calling Crime Stoppers at 877.92.CRIME or the WPD at 828.452.2491 or through WPD’s Facebook page.

On March 19, a threat cleared out the Haywood County Courthouse in the early afternoon; however, a suspect was apprehended less than four hours later.

Sheriff Bill Wilke said the courthouse threat was different from the others in that it was submitted by phone.

“Not to reveal too many methods, but with the utilization of witnesses and technology, that came to a close very quickly,” Wilke said.

— Cory Vaillancourt, Politics Editor

On the morning of April 8, county employees removed commemorative plaques from the Confederate statue outside the Jackson County Library and placed them in the county’s storage facility. Few in the county, save the board of commissioners, knew the possibility of removal was even on the table. 

The aim of newly-elected State Superintendent of Public Schools Mo Green’s “Mo Wants to Know” tour is simple — to garner as much input as possible about the direction North Carolina Public Schools should be heading in the coming years.

Maconians are known among the citizens of Western North Carolina for robust and regular public input at local government meetings and this year was no different. But there was one issue in particular that galvanized the citizens of Macon County to stand together and speak up — efforts to weaken the county’s floodplain ordinances. 

Buncombe County’s first state park, near the eastern gateway to Haywood County, remains on track for a 2025 opening after the final in-person public input session for master planning concluded at Upper Hominy Fire and Rescue Department on Aug. 1.  

More than 100 people came together to discuss the future of one of the region’s most important resources during the fifth annual French Broad River Partnership  meeting Wednesday, Nov. 8. 

Macon County Commissioners have adopted a master plan for the county’s recreation center and surrounding park.