Waynesville’s North Main Street has been an important economic engine for the town and the county for decades, and the town’s municipal service district has played a significant role in that success.

If you have seen the movie The Miracle Worker about Anne Sullivan’s struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller to communicate, you will understand the power of the breakthrough moment of “WAHHH…!” It was the turning point in Helen’s life when she was able to suspend her sorrow and rage at living in an isolated world and connect through her newfound understanding of language with another human being.

Haywood County commissioners took another step toward their multi-million dollar jail expansion last week, and although much has changed since a report issued more than three years ago recommended the project, much has not. 

Marianna Black Library is set for a major expansion and renovation thanks to funding from several parties, including a large allotment in the state budget. 

The Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino and Hotel in Murphy is abuzz these days as 200 on-site construction workers hustle to finish a $275 million expansion project expected to open in 2024. 

The Sandy Mush Game Lands in Buncombe and Madison counties are now 67 acres larger after the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy helped the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission acquire the property.

After graduating its first senior class in the spring of 2022, Summit Charter School has broken ground on phase II of a high school expansion that will include a new building. 

Shining Rock Classical Academy is hitting pause on plans for expansion of its school building — now untenable due to rising interest rates — even as the school population continues to grow. 

Saying that it invests in North Carolina’s “families, businesses and communities,” Gov. Roy Cooper presented his proposed 2022-23 budget, full of significant appropriations meant to deal with some of the state’s biggest problems — out-of-control housing costs, an increasingly competitive economic development landscape, a lack of law enforcement resources, threats to the natural environment, an underfunded educational system and affordable access to health care coverage.

Haywood County commissioners took an important step forward on April 4 by selecting Moseley Architects of Charlotte as the preferred firm to handle architectural and engineering services for the county’s proposed jail expansion project.