Free parking has its drawbacks, at least for the Country Music and Dance Parlor in downtown Canton.

When Heidi Dunkelberg first entered the town of Canton, she couldn’t imagine ever living there.

Evergreen Packaging’s Canton paper mill will be writing some big checks over the coming years as it moves to comply with an Environmental Protection Agency rule 10 years in the making.

It’s been more than a decade since the EPA first proposed stricter limits for toxic pollutant emissions from boilers, but once it released the final regulation in December 2012, companies nationwide began gearing up for the expensive upgrades necessary to comply. Evergreen is among them.

Canton residents will have the chance to weigh in on the town board’s yearlong search for a town manager at a public forum scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, at the Colonial Theatre.

By Paul Clark • Correspondent

In the old Imperial Hotel in Canton, Sid’s on Main is creating a little history of its own. 

Sid Truesdale, who owns the restaurant with his wife Page, is honoring the building’s place in local history by putting pecan pie on the menu. The original restaurant, which fed workers and executives at the then-new Champion paper plant nearby, served pecan pie, as well as the drop biscuits that Sid also offers.

Canton has four new aldermen.

In a close race, Carole Edwards, Ralph Hamlett, Gail Mull and Zeb Smathers won.

Despite sweepstakes-style video gambling being outlawed in the state, they have slowly crept back in to the corners of gas stations across Western North Carolina in recent months. 

While infrastructure and economic development tops each candidate’s agenda, a far more consequential matter could await those who fill the four open seats on the Canton Board of Aldermen — who will Canton’s next town manager be?

The commercial corridor of the Canton exit off Interstate 40 has been in a vice grip for several years due to a maxed out sewer line.

The clock is ticking for Canton to spend $25,000 in remaining grant money from the N.C. Rural Center.