Swain County schools are requesting an additional $250,000 from the county commissioners to cover some much-needed building maintenance projects at all four schools.

It’s a land with a rich past and a hopeful future. 

As YMCA employees, volunteers and future campers walked the Watia Creek Farms property along the western corner of Swain County last Friday, they could see the future. They could see children playing in nature, learning about the great outdoors and making lifelong friendships at the future home of YMCA’s Camp Watia.

It’s a recent Saturday afternoon at Nantahala Brewing Company in downtown Bryson City. With bluebird skies overhead and the mountains of Southern Appalachia in the distance, brewery co-owner Joe Rowland scans his surroundings. There are children and dogs running around the front porch, with folks from Asheville, Atlanta, Charlotte and everywhere in-between raising their glasses high to another day in paradise.

Swain County commissioners are moving forward with their plan to address the lack of animal control by putting together an ad hoc committee to explore possible solutions.

Swain County Commissioners are moving forward with a false alarm ordinance with the understanding that the sheriff’s office will enforce it with “common sense” in mind. 

Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital have embarked on exciting futures for our hospitals and communities.  

Early this month, we unveiled new names and logos for our hospitals that highlight our connection to Duke LifePoint Healthcare. While this was the first visual representation of our relationship with Duke LifePoint, the benefits of our becoming part of its system began several months ago.

The furniture manufacturer remembered as Carolina Wood Turning Company has been closed for more than 30 years, yet the smell of freshly cut wood and the sound of the steam whistle are still fresh in the minds of those who earned a living there. 

The Bryson City business had many names throughout the years and made a number of different products, but its lifeblood was making furniture from Western North Carolina lumber. The company made wood pump tubing, tanners’ liquor logs and miscellaneous wood trimmings and solid bored colonial porch columns that can still be seen on older homes in Swain County.

No personal voter identification information was found missing following a break-in at the Swain County Board of Elections Office in Bryson City.

When the Swain County Board of Elections didn’t get the response it wanted from the county commissioners, it decided to ask the state for an answer to a retirement benefits dispute that has been going on for about 10 years.

Harris Regional Hospital and Swain County Hospital have finally settled on new names following the purchase of the hospitals by Duke LifePoint Healthcare last year, but the change announced this week is a minor one.