2023 A Look Back: Not on my Watch Award
Newly elected Haywood County Sheriff Bill Wilke stepped into some big shoes following the retirement of longtime Sheriff Greg Christopher, but earlier this year Wilke showed Haywood County, along with some of its most vulnerable residents, that he wears some pretty damn big shoes himself.
2023 A Look Back: Odd Man in award
Maggie Valley is gonna Maggie Valley.
It comes with the territory. To win a seat on that town’s board of aldermen one has to endure some contentious moments, likely over a residential development or (gasp) a park.
2023 A Look Back: The Hero You Never Knew You Needed Award
Not all heroes wear capes.
At least not Amanda Seay. She seems more the utility pants and boots type.
Haywood gets financial reporting award
Haywood County has been recognized with the prestigious Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA).
Courting disloyalty: New program encourages shoppers to patronize Waynesville businesses
The disloyalty card is here and it’s, in a sense, exactly what it sounds like.
Up in the air: North Canton Fire Department puts eyes in the sky to save lives
As technology evolves, every entity and industry finds new and innovative ways to use those advances to improve their operations.
Fingers like lightning: A Haywood County banjo retrospective
Editor’s Note: Since first rolling into Haywood County in August 2012 to start work as the arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountain News, Garret K. Woodward has been extensively documenting banjo players around our backyard.
Five strings of fury: New book spotlights Haywood banjo legends
In the mid-1960s, when Bill Allsbrook was a med school student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, he decided to pick up the banjo.
Haywood County and Waynesville look to stay ahead of cryptocurrency mining
It’s novel, it’s trendy and it’s a great way to become fabulously wealthy — or lose everything you have — but the nuisances associated with the production of cryptocurrency are prompting local governments to regulate them before it’s too late.
The state of the sheriff’s office: Haywood’s top cop drops data, details from his first year
It’s been just under a year since Bill Wilke became Haywood County’s sheriff, after longtime popular incumbent, Greg Christopher, decided to call it a career.