After weeks of heated discussion and back and forth over both revenue and expenditures, the Macon County Commission approved the 2023-24 budget with just a few deviations from the draft version proposed last month. It maintained the proposed tax rate that will be the lowest property tax rate in the state of North Carolina for the coming fiscal year.

There will be legal penalties for camping on the Little Tennessee River Greenway in Macon County after the County Commission updated the ordinance that regulates use of the greenway last week.

At the April 24 meeting of the Macon County School Board, confusion surrounding the county’s intent to purchase the Higdon property came into focus.

To the Editor: 

I was wrong in my previous letter (“Use common sense with library controversy,” April 5, SMN). The library has not been stonewalling the concerned citizens. After publication of my previous letter about our library, I spoke with the directors of the Macon and Jackson county libraries. 

After a seven-day trial and several hours of jury deliberations, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina failed to return a verdict in the case of a Macon County Sheriff’s Deputy who shot and killed a Macon County man nearly five years ago.