Superior Court Judge Tessa Sellers has granted Swain County a temporary enjoinment and restraining order against the Fontana Regional Library board, in effect until June 29, when the court will hear the plaintiff’s preliminary injunction. 

To the Editor:

I write as someone with more than 30 years of experience facilitating transparent, evidence-based decision-making across diverse stakeholders, and as a pro-democracy advocate who believes local governance is essential to community health. 

Even as it sees its own demise over the horizon, the Fontana Regional Library Board of Trustees is moving fast to make its agenda into policy. 

Swain Librarian Jeff Delfield learned through a text that Macon commissioners had voted to begin the process of leaving the Fontana Regional Library system in 2027. 

The June 9 decision follows in the footsteps of Jackson County. Though Jackson commissioners cited concerns about LGBTQ+ material as justification, Macon County framed the vote as a financially prudent move. 

Macon commissioners voted to notify the Fontana Regional Library system of the county’s withdrawal. 

While the item wasn’t included in the agenda for the June 9 meeting that went out to the public, it was added near the beginning of the meeting on a motion by Commissioner Barry Breeden, who spearheaded the withdrawal discussion. 

Macon commissioners voted to notify the Fontana Regional Library System of the county's withdrawal.

Former Jackson County Library Director and Fontana Regional Library System Director Tracy Fitzmaurice has received an American Library Association “I Love My Librarian Award.”

Fitzmaruice was one of 10 winners nationwide. According to a an ALA press release, the 2026 honorees are “exceptional” in their field and were nominated by community members “for their expertise, dedication, and profound impact on the people in their communities.” 

The question of who will control one of Jackson County’s most visible public assets is beginning to draw clear lines, and on March 26, Sylva’s Board of Commissioners stepped firmly onto one side. 

In a unanimous vote, commissioners adopted a resolution supporting continued control of the Jackson County Library Complex by the Jackson County Public Library, signaling opposition to any effort that would shift authority elsewhere. 

When Grace Powell walks into the Jackson County Public Library on June 1 as its new full-time director, she will inherit more than a building full of books — she will inherit a community still divided. 

Powell, a lifelong Sylva resident, earned her elementary education degree at Western Carolina University, taught third grade at Scotts Creek elementary school for a year and a half before earning a master’s degree in library science from East Carolina University.

A week and a half after Fontana Regional Library Director Tracy Fitzmaurice tendered her resignation, the board is moving forward to find a replacement. 

At a specially called Feb. 9 meeting at the Jackson County Library’s community room, the board went into a closed session to discuss details.