By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

A property transfer tax that could potentially bring nearly a million dollars a year to county coffers is meeting fierce opposition in two Western North Carolina counties where the tax will appear on the November ballot.

A public hearing Monday on a $64 million bond for various construction projects in Macon County attracted relatively few naysayers.

Voters in Macon will get to weigh in on the slate of construction projects in a countywide vote on Nov. 6. Each component of the bond package will be a separate item on the ballot. The biggest share of bond money is for new schools. Other components include recreation, a new library in Highlands, a new senior center, and a new community college building.

After years of debate over stray animals in Macon County — namely the lack of anywhere to take them — county leaders decided last week that it’s time to build a county animal shelter.

Along with the shelter will come two animal control officers to pick up strays and enforce animal control laws, as well as one office staffer. It will cost the county upwards of $250,000 a year, but county commissioners said it is an issue the county has dodged for too long.

Macon County will be the first in Western North Carolina to test the idea of a new tax on real estate transactions.

Commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to put the new property transfer tax on the ballot in November, along with a $64 million bond package for sundry building projects. Voters will get to pick and choose which, if any, of the bond projects they support — schools, a new recreation center and parks, community college expansion, a library in Highlands and county buildings. As a separate item, voters can approve or veto the idea of a property transfer tax.

Unlike most town and county governments in Western North Carolina, Franklin’s elected leaders had the foresight more than five decades ago to pass zoning regulations.

County commissioners, planners and planning board members from the state’s seven westernmost counties will meet this month in a first-of-its-kind attempt to discuss land management on a regional level.

By Michael Beadle

There’s a dance of light in a work of glass. Move around the piece and it changes color as if it were alive.

As county planner in Macon County, Stacey Guffey knows a little bit about controversy and soliciting public opinion.

Members of a heritage task force in Macon County want town and county leaders to form a commission with regulatory powers to protect historical districts and landmarks.

The preservation of the Cowee mound and village site alongside the Little Tennessee River in Macon County is truly significant in regard to this region’s cultural history. The Hall and Porter families are to be commended for making this possible through the agencies of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians.