On Jan. 15, The Smoky Mountain News contacted almost every elected official in Haywood County for whom an email address was listed with the county’s board of elections. Around half failed to respond, but those who did were sometimes too verbose for print, so an excerpt from their response was used in the Jan. 23 edition of The Smoky Mountain News. In the interest of transparency, their full responses are included here.

A booming real estate market brings with it many benefits and is a sign of a thriving economy, but some unintended consequences are making it even more difficult for residents of Western North Carolina to find affordable homes for sale or rent. 

A beef between the Town of Waynesville and local property owner Ron Muse over an ersatz dwelling on an otherwise vacant, garbage-strewn Church Street lot is about to heat up again. 

There are plenty of misconceptions about the federal government shutdown — what it is, who it affects, how it happens, and why — but what is clear is that both parties have engaged in the tactic for almost 45 years, and as time goes on, shutdowns are becoming longer, and becoming more commonly used as a policy tool. 

Not for nearly half a century has anyone been able to say, “Haywood County has a new county attorney,” but now that an era has ended, everyone will have to get used to hearing it. 

After a minor delay due to the concerns of a newly-elected commissioner, Haywood County has again decided to move forward with the redevelopment of the Historic Haywood Hospital by granting Landmark Services a purchase option on the property, but the looming issue of what to do with its current occupants remains unresolved. 

That’s right. It may seem like election season just ended, but it’s also just beginning, and in less than 300 days voters in every Haywood County town will again head to the polls to choose from candidates seeking a spate of municipal offices.

A pair of public hearings for a pair of local businesses — one old, one new, one small and one huge — will solicit citizen input on economic development incentives proposed for Evergreen Packaging and Boojum Brewing.

This is my third Christmas as a member of The Smoky Mountain News staff, and this is also the third installment of the FAKE NEWS FREAKOUT. Conspiracy? No. Coincidence? Likely. 

But since there seems to be some lingering confusion over what fake news is not (stuff you don’t agree with) and what fake news actually is (the stories below), submitted herewith for your amusement are a number of genuine fake news stories gathered from around the region this past year. Co-conspirators Holly Kays and Jessi Stone contributed to this fake news report, which is fake. 

American agriculture is experiencing a tougher time than ever, and that includes farmers in North Carolina. But as the latest version of the Farm Bill awaits President Donald Trump’s signature after passing through Congress, apparently there’s not a lot of help coming. 

It took a while, but after a surprise addition to the Haywood Board of County Commissioners’ agenda, no small amount of debate and an unusual procedural move, Haywood County Schools will move forward with a land acquisition it’s been eyeing for more than a year. 

Legislation implementing North Carolina’s first-ever voter ID requirement passed both the House and the Senate Dec. 6, but a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had Republicans scrambling back to the legislative chambers to override it before their power to do so evaporated. 

An ongoing effort to qualify for tax credits that would make redevelopment of the county-owned Historic Haywood County Hospital more financially attractive to developers will have some extra heft behind it if a series of Waynesville public hearings meets with board approval.

Long-established rules and regulations created by the Town of Waynesville that proscribed periodic cleanup of the town’s historic Green Hill Cemetery upset family members of the deceased, who were taken aback — and, they say, by surprise — when the cleanup resulted in dozens of shrubs, statues, vases and floral arrangements being cleared from plots. 

As many residents of Southern Appalachia stocked up on necessaries in advance of a powerful winter storm that ended up leaving thousands without power, governments and nonprofits across the region scrambled to open shelters and warming stations that wound up being, for some, more of a necessity than milk and bread. 

Somewhere on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio, about 18 months ago, Waynesville resident Peg Harmon — who notes her first name is just one letter away from “Pez” — experienced the power of one tiny candy in bringing people together. 

Around a foot of heavy, wet snow that started yesterday afternoon and continued through the night brought down trees, snapped power lines and made travel impossible for some, prompting Haywood County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kevin Ensley to declare a state of emergency as of 8:15 this morning.

Maps from Duke Energy show more than a hundred separate outages affecting at least 4,000 Haywood County customers, who remain without power as of about 11 a.m.

Months ago, just after he finished mopping the floor with pro se defendant Eddie Cabe, Haywood County attorney Rusty McLean said, “You should always have a lawyer.”

Apparently, someone heard him. 

It was a struggle from the start — getting in, getting people and supplies up and getting the lumber down — but the mostly-forgotten century-old logging camp now hidden beneath the placid waters of Lake Logan in southeastern Haywood County still casts a long shadow on the area and its inhabitants. 

It was fitting that District Court Judge Donna Forga was on hand Dec. 3 to swear in the two new Republican commission members that will give the Haywood Commission, for the next two years at least, a first-ever Republican majority — her father Robert was the first Republican elected to the commission in 1994. 

The strange saga of Maggie Valley’s Ghost Town amusement park has more twists and turns and more highs and lows than a roller coaster, but now that the latest ride up Buck Mountain is over, two investors say CEO Lamar Berry has thrown them for a loop. 

There, in Sumter County, Georgia, not far from the Alabama line lies the tiny town of Plains (pop. 784), a most unremarkable place home to a most remarkable man. 

Home for President Jimmy Carter has always been the clay roads and cotton fields of Plains, except when he was at Annapolis, in the Navy, or serving as state senator or governor or president. 

A pair of congressmen — one Democrat and one Republican — were slapped with sanctions by the House Ethics Committee last week in relation to separate cases of sexual harassment.

Citing a slowdown in federal funding and a desire to run a regularly scheduled circulator route across Haywood County, Mountain Projects Transit Director Chuck Norris reached out to Haywood County commissioners for more fiscal flexibility and an advance on a county match. 

It was a journey I thought would last three days but has already lasted a year, with no signs of stopping.

It was 50 miles in 60 hours, all on foot. It was two sleeps outside, and one in the shelter where I ate my Thanksgiving dinner. 

With a new board that will subsequently change the face of Haywood County government set to be sworn in on Dec. 3, the current lineup of commissioners took action Nov. 19 to ensure the Jonathan Creek project will continue as envisioned by them. 

A major project slated for a prime parcel in Waynesville’s burgeoning Russ Avenue commercial district could soon transform a local shopping plaza into dozens of residences. 

Two years ago, a Smoky Mountain News analysis of precinct-level elections results painted a portrait of a red county getting redder — at least electorally. This year was almost as rosy for Haywood’s Republican voters, who saw their candidates return to the U.S. House and the N.C. Senate as well as swing the Haywood Commission from a 3-to-2 Democratic majority to a 4-to-1 Republican advantage. 

Results in the Haywood County Board of Commissioners race hit the county like a cannonball, with Republicans taking two of three seats — all previously held by Democrats — while also earning themselves a 4-to-1 majority on the first-ever Republican-controlled commission. 

As the pace of growth and development begins to pick up across Haywood County, demand for basic services like sewer, water, fire and police protection are bound to increase, but another basic component of everyday life in the United States many look at as “intellectual infrastructure” will need to be reassessed as well. 

It didn’t take long for protests to spring up across the country, state and region as soon as President Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions. 

Mountain Mediation Services has been providing an invaluable service to Western North Carolina’s criminal justice system for more than 20 years. 

Back before incessant war became a hallmark of American foreign policy, U.S. involvement in global affairs was but a shadow of what it is today. 

A pair of legal actions filed in Haywood courts during the month of October suggest efforts to redevelop Maggie Valley’s Ghost Town amusement park may be in jeopardy. 

A press release issued by Haywood Regional Medical Center on Oct. 26 touted renovations to an existing facility that will provide better building utilization and expansion of patient care services, but that’s not the part of the statement that’s got some local residents upset. 

With the retirement of Democratic Commissioner Bill Upton, one commission seat was up for grabs, with two more being defended by their Democratic occupants, Commissioner Mike Sorrells and Commission Chairman Kirk Kirkpatrick.

Any notion of a red tide or blue wave ebbed quickly Nov. 6, as both Republicans and Democrats celebrated victories, mourned defeats, said goodbye to some incumbents, and hello to new ones.

Third quarter fundraising reports submitted by candidates to the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement last week show most Democratic challengers in Western North Carolina with substantial fundraising advantages over their Republican incumbent opponents.

Most years, voters head to the polls with a few candidates or a political party in mind, push some buttons, and go home. But this year’s ballot also contains six proposed amendments to the North Carolina Constitution.

The bad news is almost six million North Carolinians still hadn’t voted as of Monday, Oct. 29. The good news is more than a million had — 1.23 million, to be exact.

Asheville Republican Mark Meadows has now served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives — the last two as a powerful figure in the majority party, the most recent under unified Republican control of the presidency, the Senate and the House. 

Since 2012, Western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District has been represented by Asheville Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, a Florida native who moved to the region in 1986. Meanwhile, Meadows has enjoyed great electoral success and become the standard-bearer for what remains of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party nationwide.

The crew at The Blue Rooster Southern Grill is known for some of the best fried chicken in the region, but for the past eight years they’ve also been serving it up with a side of kindness. 

Business owners aren’t just retail or hospitality-based bricks and mortar shopkeeps; often overlooked are the sole proprietors selling a service or skill that comes from within, and many of those are members of the so-called “creative class” — artists, writers, performers and the like. 

Sitting at a low desk in a cozy nook of her mountaintop studio and gallery, Margaret Pennington Roberts, brush in hand, contemplates a canvas perched precariously on an easel.