Haywood County’s website tied for the highest ranking in the area despite earning design scores that were sub-par.

A lawsuit filed by a Waynesville parent and attorney in May regarding the closure of Central Elementary School is beginning to see some action.

Rods, reels, and wader-clad teenagers dotted Big East Fork’s meander to Lake Logan through the warm summer mornings last week, a picture of mountain tranquility framed between green-shrouded banks backlit by the mountain-bordered reservoir downstream.

“It’s pretty relaxing,” said Gabby Dilemme, 14, of Brevard. The rod she grasped was her own, an instrument she’s used before when fishing with friends. But at Rivercourse, the annual four-day fly fishing and conservation camp organized by N.C. Trout Unlimited, she was hoping to dig a little deeper into the sport.

Haywood County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for an armed and dangerous suspect involved in a June 26 shooting incident in Canton.

Although the upcoming general election has much of the nation’s attention focused on just two candidates — a controversial populist and a former Secretary of State under investigation for mishandling classified material — local races offer considerably more palatable choices that will have a direct impact on the lives of area residents. 

For more than 50 years, Mountain Projects has been known for helping the most vulnerable in the community, but with a resolution passed by the Haywood County Board of Commissioners on June 20, they’ll be helping themselves — and the county.

Citing recent news stories about mosquitoes transmitting the Zika virus, Haywood County Director of Health and Human Services Patrick H. Johnson presented information to the Haywood County Board on Haywood County’s mosquito populations, the risks the insects pose, prevention measures, and available assistance.

Although the Haywood County Board of Commissioners passed a 2016-17 budget June 20 that was 3.1 percent higher than 2015-16, the board was able to do so without budging from its previous 56.61 cents per $100 assessed value property tax levy.

Easily identifiable in their teal T-shirts with the “#buildtheshelter” hashtag emblazoned on the back, an estimated 100-plus person crowd turned up at the June 20 Haywood County commissioners’ meeting to show their support — both personal and financial — for the proposed $3.3 million Haywood County Animal Shelter project.

When Sarah Scott first started work at Haywood County Cooperative Extension in February 2015, planning for the 2016 Haywood County Garden Tour was one of the first items to come across her desk. Untold hours of preparation later, the horticulture extension agent and horde of volunteers working with her are days away from showing hundreds of people the best of Haywood’s gardens.

“Haywood County has some very talented gardeners and some very beautiful gardens,” Scott said. “I enjoyed going out and seeing so many of them. It was terrible to have to choose only a few.”