As part of its public art initiative, Sylva will host a large, interactive cat sculpture in Bridge Park this fall and winter, after which the Sylva Art + Design Committee will find a more permanent home for the feline.

In the face of a housing shortage and increased competition for employees, the Town of Sylva has updated its policy that allows police officers a take-home vehicle. The board also decided that in the future, updates to this policy would not have to come before the board but would be an administrative decision made within the police department. 

When the Town of Sylva instituted its social district earlier this year, it planned to revisit the ordinance six months later to determine how things were going. That six-month mark came up last week and the town board decided not only to keep the ordinance in place, but also extend the social district’s operating hours.

The second annual Sylva Pride Festival will take place this weekend, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva. The Pride Parade will kick off at noon, beginning at Bridge Park before proceeding down Main Street. 

Over the next month, the Town of Sylva will be constructing a temporary skatepark in the lot behind Motion Makers, the result of work by both the town and a grassroots group of Jackson residents.

Sliding into a booth at The One Stop, a storied basement music venue in the heart of downtown Asheville, lead singer Brett O’Connor readies himself to soon take the cavernous stage, standing before a microphone in front of a sea of anonymous faces — all eager to see just what he and his band, Sneezy, have to offer.

New short-term rentals in Sylva will only be allowed as an accessory use to an existing dwelling, not the only residence on a lot, after the board unanimously voted to approve a revised ordinance on the issue last week. The move is part of an effort to address affordable housing, a problem plaguing many communities in the region.

The Town of Sylva updated its zoning ordinance earlier this year but left the short-term rental ordinance as it was written with the plan to hammer it out at a later date. 

An inclinometer on the prefab slope above Bryson Park shows that some movement has occurred since it was installed more than 60 days ago, indicating a need for repair. 

Julie Fox Jones’ family has been in Cullowhee for at least 100 years, probably even longer. Naturally, as a kid growing up here, all she wanted to do was leave. Get out of town. What she didn’t expect was that once she’d made it out, all she would think about was how to get home.