Land For Tomorrow is a statewide initiative launched last year to set aside $1 billion for land conservation over the next five years.

Dave Curphey’s story is a dime a dozen. Fed up with the urban sprawl that ruined his small town in Florida, devouring a landscape once dominated with orchards in just 10 short years, he packed his bags and moved to the mountains of Western North Carolina. His favorite line to locals: “You should have shot me at the border when you still had the chance.”

Paddlers floated down the Chattooga River outside Cashiers last weekend for the first time in 30 years since the U.S. Forest Service first imposed a paddling ban on the upper stretch of the Wild and Scenic River.

As the Cherokee election season gets under way in the race for chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, there’s one dynamic that won’t be at play: catering to the hundreds of enrolled tribal members who live in far-flung states.

An elected board member in Maggie Valley has collected $6,500 in commission from the town after acting as the town’s real estate agent in the purchase of land for a small park.

The surge in early voting witnessed in the last election has prompted the Swain County election board to hunt for a new office location.

A record number of applicants are seeking seats on the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, likely spurred by the ongoing tug of war over the best way to spend $650,000 annually in tourism promotion dollars.

Two Swain County residents claim they were victims of illegal voter intimidation during the November election.

Clerk talks:

Dennis Stephenson, a clerk at the Bryson City post office, supplied the following statement in an affidavit taken by Swain County election board member John Herrin.

Haywood County commissioners are once again pondering the idea of recruiting a state prison.

New developments have emerged involving the the purchase of a small piece of land in Maggie Valley by the town for a park.

Alderman Phil Aldridge made $6,500 in commission for acting as the town’s real estate agent in the deal. In general, it is considered a conflict of interest for a public official to profit off a contract with the body they serve. A little-known exception applies to towns with a population under 15,000, which Aldridge was able to utilize.

But Aldridge may have crossed the line when he spoke in favor of buying the land during the town board’s deliberations.

According to state law, a public official using the 15,000 loophole to do business with the body they serve cannot “deliberate or vote on the contract or attempt to influence any other person” involved in the vote or “participate in any way.”

The town board held a special meeting to talk about whether to buy the land last October. According to the minutes from that meeting, Aldridge left the room when the rest of the board discussed whether the town could and should hire him to act as their real estate agent. When Aldridge came back in to the room, he shared his opinion about buying the property.

“Alderman Aldridge stated that he was reluctant to purchase the property at first because he had concerns about the effect it would have on the taxpayers and the improvements to the festival grounds. After further consideration, Alderman Aldridge realized that this could be the last time the Town has the opportunity to purchase land adjacent to Jonathan Creek for a public park,” according to the minutes.

The board had not yet voted, and it is unclear whether those statements qualify Aldridge as participating in the deliberations, which is barred by law.

Making use of the loophole

Some have questioned whether it was appropriate for Aldridge to take advantage of the 15,000 loophole in the first place. The small-town provision is intended for a scenario when an elected official owns the only business in town that provides a needed service, and it would pose a major inconvience for the town to seek that service from outside the area.

Every town west of Asheville could technically utilize the loophole, but most elected or appointed officials don’t. Just recently, Sam McCrary, who serves on the Maggie ABC board, acted as the town’s real estate agent in the purchase of land for a new ABC store. In that scenario, McCrary did not accept commission from the deal.

“No, absolutely not,” McCrary said. McCrary said he did not take commission “because of a conflict of interest from serving on the ABC board.”

In the town board’s eyes, however, Aldridge was a logical choice. The town needed someone who could act quickly since another offer for the property was pending.

“Alderman (Mark) DeMeola felt that Alderman Aldridge could represent the Town if he is removed from all aspects of any action decided. Alderman (Saralyn) Price agreed, adding that it would be difficult to select a realtor from all the realtors within the Maggie Valley area,” the minutes from the meeting read.

The board made a point of noting that Aldridge’s commission would come out of the selling price, and wouldn’t really cost the town anything extra. Wording to that effect was included in the town’s resolution to buy the property.

But it’s not exactly accurate, according to Joann Lyons, a Realtor with Maggie Valley Properties. If Aldridge had left his portion of the commission on the table, it would have reduced the selling price and saved the town money. Lyons said there are several Realtors in Maggie Valley who would have done the transaction for the town pro bono.

“Upon my brokers approval I would have been more than happy to have helped them and not charged the town anything,” Lyons said. “Several of us would have been happy to do that for the town. We pay town taxes so we would have been happy to save the town the money.”

How did the town find out?

Another recent development in the story comes from a would-be buyer of the same property who was preempted by the town with a slightly higher offer. Mike Gaddis, a developer from Maryville, said the sellers had verbally accepted his offer of $125,000. The paperwork had been faxed to the sellers and was expected to be returned within a couple of days, Gaddis said.

In the meantime, the Maggie town board found out the sellers were considering an offer of $125,000. They called a special meeting, hired Aldridge as their real estate agent and told him to make the sellers an offer of $130,000. The town had the property under contract the next day.

“I was very upset,” Gaddis said. “It is kind of bizarre how they knew what I was offering for it. That is supposed to be confidential.”

Tim Barth, the Maggie Valley town manager, said the town’s timing was just a lucky coincidence on their part. Barth said the town learned through casual conversation that the sellers were considering an offer of $125,000 — much less than the initial asking price — and called a special meeting to discuss it.

“We decided if somebody had made an offer of $125,000 and it was seriously being considered that we might be interested,” Barth said. “We didn’t know if there was a sale pending or how close the sale was.” Barth said he can’t remember who told the town about the $125,000 offer on the table.

On another front, Gaddis said his intentions for the property were misunderstood. In a memo to the town board, Barth wrote: “If the town does not buy the property there is no guarantee what might get built on the property. There has been mention of a 27-foot-tall ice cream cone shaped structure being built on the property and that they would sell ice-cream out of it.”

Gaddis said they had the wrong guy.

“I’ve never been in the ice-cream business and don’t want to be in the ice-cream business,” Gaddis said.

Gaddis said he planned to build a professional office on the property and had already had engineers look at it.

Apparently another potential buyer interested in the property several months earlier had broached the idea of an ice-cream stand, but never made a real offer and was unconnected with Gaddis.

Thanks to major environmental investments by Blue Ridge Paper Products in Canton, the last advisory against eating fish downstream of the mill was lifted this month — ending a 20-year effort to clean up the river following decades of pollution from chemicals historically dumped in the river by the mill.

Students in Haywood County are on the front lines of an ambitious effort to reintroduce a slew of native species to the Pigeon River following decades of pollution from the Canton paper mill that destroyed the aquatic habitat.

Slope development regulations will go into effect in Haywood County on March 1.

Leaders of a downtown Sylva movement are considering downsizing a proposed special taxing district to encompass only the core downtown area.

Leaders of the Downtown Sylva Association are drumming up support for a special taxing district that would raise money to promote downtown.

When Howard Alligood heard about a group of Sylva merchants lobbying for a special downtown tax, he got a little suspicious.

An overhaul of economic development strategy in Jackson County has temporarily stalled over who will be in charge.

Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran has estimated how much his predecessor might have made under the table feeding jail inmates: the figure comes in well over $100,000 a year.

The North Carolina Election Board says it could be another month or two before someone can make the trip from Raleigh to Bryson City to look into complaints of illegal voter intimidation and improper handling of absentee ballots associated with November’s election.

A long-time group of emergency room doctors in Haywood County filed a lawsuit against Haywood Regional Medical Center this week.

It’s still 11 months away, but organizers of a year-long Haywood County bicentennial celebration in 2008 are already counting down the days until the kick-off.

As the population in the rural areas of Haywood County grows, leaders are being faced with the question of whether it’s time to station new ambulances in these outlying areas.

When George Ivey broached the idea of a new specialty license plate design for Friends of the Smokies, feedback on the best image to symbolize the park ran the gamut: a scenic vista, a log cabin, the rare hellbender salamander, even slime molds.

Swain County leaders took the first step toward regulating unchecked growth and development this week by appointing the county’s first-ever planning board.

Controversy among downtown Sylva merchants and property owners could either escalate or come to a close this week, depending on what route the Downtown Sylva Association takes at a town board meeting Thursday expected to draw crowds of merchants.

The Downtown Sylva Association has dropped the idea of a special downtown property tax due to a lack of support among merchants.

Following several years of decline and neglect, Smoky Mountain Golf Course in Whittier has been wrested away from its out-of-state owners by a local developer pledging a major overhaul of the course.

When Commissioner Glenn Jones pulled into the Stillhouse Branch trailer park in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Swain County last October, he’d strayed far from the campaign path of most candidates.

Haywood County commissioners suggested they could be amenable to a slight property tax increase this year if there is something really important they want the money for.

The Downtown Sylva Association has dropped the idea of a special downtown property tax due to a lack of support among merchants.

One Swain County resident expressed concern last week that developers and speculators will rush to break ground on mountainside subdivisions in the next few months to beat out development regulations coming down the pipe.

Count my daughter among the millions of kids whose first word was “doggy.” For a several-week stretch, “doggy” was also her only word. She used it liberally, be it a salutation for the grocery store clerk or pointing out a squirrel in the backyard.

We don’t have a dog anymore, but there’s something about dogs. Kids just love them. Mine are no exception.

A new 8.5-mile fiber optic cable linking government buildings in Waynesville has recently been installed.

Nature Deficit Disorder

Sometimes, you read an interview and it hits home, hard. Last month’s issue of The Sun, a magazine out of Chapel Hill that is among the most eclectic in print, featured an interview with Richard Louv, a journalist and writer who has written several books.

Frenzy surrounding a proposed moratorium on new subdivisions in Jackson County reached a fever pitch in the run-up to a public hearing on the issue Tuesday night.

Since Suzanne Gernandt opened Textures in downtown Waynesville three years ago, she’s noticed one question in particular has been on the rise among her customers: where can I find wireless Internet?

More than 1,300 people crowded into the public hearing last week over a proposed moratorium on new subdivisions in Jackson County.

The debate over a proposed moratorium on new subdivisions in Jackson County is divided into two main camps: those who claim an economic downturn will result and those who feel protecting the mountains from unsavory development is critical to the county’s future.

When Bob Brannon saw a newspaper announcement last spring seeking developers to participate in a pilot mapping project, he already had most of the planning for his development, Mountain Watch, in place.

Jackson County commissioners approved a five-month moratorium on new subdivisions in a 4 to 1 vote last week, but not without tacking on a compromise measure that will give developers caught in the lurch a way out.

Jackson County planner Linda Cable has more than 60 applications on her desk from developers who hope the moratorium won’t apply to them.

When County Commissioner Will Shelton gave up time on his farm and with his four young children to run for political office in Jackson County last year, he made a pledge to voters to address the uncontrolled growth sweeping the county.

What would you like to see in your new library?

The best location for a new library in Jackson County appears to be up for discussion once more — with the idea of renovating and adding on to the vacant historic courthouse downtown back on the table.

The Swain County Board of Commissioners has formally asked the district attorney to investigate spending practices by former sheriff Bob Ogle.

The moratorium on new subdivisions in Jackson County might be over before the five-month time period originally estimated if the planning board charged with drafting development regulations keeps up its current pace.

Chris North might not wile away his work week scaling trees in search of endangered Carolina Northern Flying Squirrels, but as a project manager with the N.C. Wildlife Federation, his job is just as critical to the flying squirrel’s survival.

Chris Kelly didn’t seem fazed by the frigid February temperatures as she rock-hopped an icy stream and plunged down a trail into the Middle Prong Wilderness for another daily adventure into the world of flying squirrels.

A new director has been hired for the Jackson County library system — Dottie Brunette, currently the head librarian at the Albert-Carlton Cashiers Community Library, will be promoted to the post.