One of Zeb Smathers’ earliest memories is sitting in the cereal aisle of his grandfather’s downtown Canton grocery store, which wasn’t open on Sundays and didn’t sell booze.

“When the movie Ghostbusters came out there was a Ghostbusters cereal and I remember pleading with granddad,” Smathers said. “Mom would never allow us sugary cereal.”

Downtown Sylva looks quite a bit different these days than this time last year.

After paying for several engineering studies over the years, the town of Franklin is moving forward with a plan to try out some different parking designs on Main Street.

With its grand opening last Friday, Balsam Falls Brewing Company becomes the third business of its kind in Sylva.

Waynesville’s popular Main Street shopping district has seen some changes over the years, and as time goes by, everyone from retailers to restaurateurs have moved in, moved out and moved about the strip.

When the Town of Canton relaunched its Labor Day Festival a couple years ago, it was in a crucial move to reinvent the century-old event — and also the downtown itself.

Richard Miller may have received the Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce for 2017, but he’s been a driving force behind economic development in Waynesville for more than 30 years.

It was weird.

Driving around downtown Canton this past weekend, it was weird to have a hard time finding a parking space. In most Western North Carolina communities during the busy summer tourist season, this is the norm. But, for the blue-collar paper mill town of Canton, finding a parking spot has never been an issue. 

A plan to turn two-lane Mill Street in Sylva into a one-lane road will soon move forward if town commissioners vote to fund the project during their next meeting, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 13.

A lot is going right in Canton these days, but a driver going left — right into a downtown building — hasn’t dampened downtown’s bustling mood.