A $5.5 million renovation and expansion of the New Generations Family Birthing Center at Harris Regional Hospital will soon be underway.

Harris Regional Hospital is a powerhouse when it comes to delivering babies in the mountains, a legacy it has pledged to maintain with the symbolic merger of the hospital’s OB doctors into a single practice under the hospital’s umbrella.

Jackson County Public Schools wants more than $12 million for improvements to its facilities through 2020, but despite the big number, the requests are pretty basic, Superintendent Mike Murray told commissioners last week.

Things are coming down to the wire for Jackson County’s only homeless shelter. Without a fast infusion of cash, Jackson County Neighbors in Need is set to run out of money in under two weeks, and winter is far from over. 

Some Jackson County property owners might find themselves doing a doubletake when notice of their updated property value comes in the mail next week.

No charges will be filed following suicides at the Jackson County Detention Center in November 2014 and March 2015, District Attorney Ashley Welch announced last week.

Jackson County’s animal lovers had a message for county commissioners last week, and it couldn’t have been clearer: We need a new animal shelter, and quickly, speaker after speaker told the board. 

For Jackson County Manager Chuck Wooten, the time has come to shift his professional focus from managing a county to playing with the grandkids. After five years at the center of county operations, Wooten plans to make June 30 his last day, he announced last week.

A proposal to build a new cell tower outside Cashiers got the OK from Jackson County Commissioners last week, a decision that came after months of public discussion and heated debate.

Rob Hawk’s been trying since spring to find a landing place for the grant he’d helped get for a cattle loading facility, but in his search through Jackson County, the Cooperative Extension director came up short.