The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has approved a plan to use money from a settlement with opioid distributors and manufacturers to provide a boost to an up-and-coming transitional living home on the Qualla Boundary that will help those in rec overy get back on their feet.

As fiscal year 2024-2025 begins, North Carolina’s county governments are receiving their third installment of the Opioid Settlement Fund. This year, Swain County received $236,111. 

Macon and Jackson County commissions signed resolutions this month enabling the governments to receive funding from the Kroger opioid settlement, the third settlement of its kind for both counties. 

Jackson County will receive more than $3 million as part of an opioid settlement. The timeline for collecting that money, 18 installments over 18 years, makes meaningful use and allocation complicated. 

Millions in opioid settlement money is coming to the state, to most counties and even to some municipalities.

All indications show Swain County has a prosperous future ahead, but county leaders are looking for community input to determine what their top priorities should be moving forward. 

If you can’t understand why people in Swain County are distrustful of the federal government, then you are among those unfamiliar with the history of the infamous Road to Nowhere. 

Now that Swain County has finally received the entire $52 million from the federal government for the North Shore Road settlement agreement, county commissioners want to make sure they’re making the most of that money. 

It’s a day many in Swain County didn’t think they’d ever live to see, but last Saturday county leaders were presented a check for $35.2 million for the North Shore Road settlement, ending a 70-year-old battle with the federal government.

According to an announcement from U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Swain County will finally receive the remaining $35.2 million owed to it by the federal government.