Kim Pettit and her husband were on vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains from Minnesota two weeks ago and had popped into the restroom at the Ingle’s grocery store in Bryson City when she heard a noise coming from the ceiling.

When Dr. Robert Jenkins proclaimed in 1992 that he had discovered a new fish species in the Hiwasee and Little Tennessee rivers, it likely caused a stir among ichthyologists who found their library of fish field guides suddenly out of date and a handful of museum curators who scrambled to correct their collections.

An election protest in Swain County over alleged irregularities in the May 2 primary was dismissed in a 2 to 1 vote by the local election board last week but will be appealed to the state election board for a second ruling.

For three years, Josh Kelly has been stalking forests in the Southern Appalachians in search of unmapped old-growth forests and very old trees.

“It is like a treasure hunt everyday when I go out and look for these places,” Kelly said.

The war on soft drink vending machines in schools has found an unexpected ally in Haywood County.

Blue Ridge Paper Products has joined the ranks of those hoping to ban the drinks blamed for contributing to diabetes, childhood obesity and tooth decay. The company’s motive is a bit unique, however. It hopes to peddle more milk in cartons instead of drinks in plastic bottles and aluminum cans.

Michelle Gibson, a single mother charged with second-degree murder in the death of her 8-year-old son, Devin, was found not guilty Monday (May 22) after a week-long jury trial.

When Michelle Gibson showed up at her son’s second-grade classroom with balloons, ice cream and a decorated birthday cake signed “Love, Mommy” on a Friday afternoon last May, she told him that a bigger party was yet to come.

When Rose Smith read about the tragic death of an 8-year-old boy left in a car in the parking lot of Mountain Trace Nursing Home in Webster last May, her heart sank.

Dissatisfaction among the Haywood County tourism industry with the way tourism tax dollars are spent has long been a constant in the divided tourism community.

But critics from Maggie Valley appear to have reached a new momentum in a push to overhaul the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority. Last week they called for a meeting of the Council of Governments — the elected town leaders from Maggie, Waynesville, Canton and Clyde and the county commissioners — to discuss complaints over the tourism authority.

A tug-of-war over the $600,000 in tourism tax money in Haywood County and how it is used to lure travelers reached a new level last week.

At the prodding of Maggie Valley motel owners, the Maggie Valley Town Board is calling for a joint meeting with the leaders from other towns as well as the county to strategize on a potential overhaul of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, which oversees tourism tax dollars.

A cross-section of Haywood County business leaders took over the reins of economic development this month, with county government passing the torch to the Greater Haywood County Chamber of Commerce to blaze a new path of economic prosperity.

A group of vacant, ramshackle buildings at an anchor intersection on South Main Street in Waynesville has been purchased, signaling continued revitalization could be in store for the rag-tag corridor.

Advocates calling for increased state education funding made a stop in Haywood County Monday as part of a statewide tour en route to Raleigh, where they will deliver a stack of petitions signed by 61,000 state residents later this week.

Josh Kelly looked up from his topo map, took a step back and eyed the steep bank in front of him, scanning the line of the mountain until it disappeared out of sight. Somewhere through the tangle of rhododendrons, over a rock outcrop, and beyond that densely forested knoll was a really old tree, and Kelly was going to find it.

Elected town and county leaders will be dragged into the Haywood County tourism saga this week.

They will be asked to weigh in on how much of the $600,000 in tourism tax dollars should be dolled out in the form of grants for events. The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, a nine-member board, is granted oversight of money generated by a 3 percent tax on overnight lodging by state statute.

An influx of growth has prompted Bryson City leaders to address land-use planning with hopes of drafting the town’s first development ordinance by January 2007.

Butch Deals’ day doesn’t fit the image of the simple farming life.

Perched in the air-conditioned cab of a John Deere towing a baler across raked winnows of straw, Deals’ cell phone traffic rivaled that of a busy banker or real estate broker. A truck load of migrant workers finished unloading straw bales at the barn and needed their next assignment. A produce buyer wanted to negotiate a contract for Deals’ tomato field, offering a lump sum and a little labor in exchange for the finished crop come fall. A farm insurance agent settling a crop disaster claim for an unfortunate late spring freeze that ruined Deals’ apple crop last year had gotten lost on the way to the farm and needed directions.

The town of Maggie Valley could be getting more than it bargained for when it called on fellow towns in Haywood County to consider overhauling the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority.

Land for Tomorrow is a statewide campaign to raise $1 billion in state funds to preserve farmland and forestland, create new state parks and natural areas, restore historic sites, develop local parks and greenways and protect views along scenic highways.

Joetta Rinehart, a member of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority board, recently moved to Asheville, throwing into question her legitimacy as a tourism board member.

The survey in Macon County set out to quantify the value the public places on the landscape. Surveys sought to measure the public’s willingness to contribute toward conservation, and if so, how much.

The Bethel survey polled a random sample of 273 residents in Bethel via telephone. The Bethel Rural Community Organization sanctioned the study to identify community sentiment toward development, farmland and what makes their community special. Here are some of the more striking results:

A study committee charged with examining the role and structure of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority will be formed in July and asked to report its findings to the Haywood County Board of Commissioners.

It was a big week in the legislative building in Raleigh last week.

The House of Representatives would vote on its version of the budget, prompting a great deal of last-minute wrangling by those who hadn’t gotten what they wanted. The budget is written in sundry committees: education, prisons, courts, natural resources, social services and so on.

Editor’s note: Smoky Mountain News reporter Becky Johnson spent two days in Raleigh last week covering local representatives at work in the General Assembly. Johnson’s reporting of the activities in Raleigh covers the gamut, from the omnipresent professional lobbyists to citizen groups trying to build support for their special projects, to elected officials trying to juggle dozens of large and small tasks in a day to the passage of the all-important state budget.

Sen. John Snow, D- Murphy, had a whopper of a week last week.

He had four bills on the table he hope to push through committee, the Senate and the House in a matter of days.

High-speed Internet access has been expanded into several rural areas in the region thanks to a technology investment by Verizon landline company.

The Sumter National Forest has fired back at American Whitewater, a paddling organization that is challenging a ban on paddling the upper Chattooga River.

The Chattooga is a federally designated Wild and Scenic River that tumbles off the Cashiers Plateau and into the Sumter National Forest of South Carolina.

Wade Reece, a well-known figure in Maggie Valley civic life and the tourism industry, passed away last week, leaving a void that will be hard to fill, according to the Maggie Valley business community.

The town of Bryson City finalized a conservation easement this month that will protect a 750-acre tract known as Lands Creek that’s adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Swain County.

A ban on logging and road building in roadless areas of the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests is on track to be reinstated one year after the Bush Administration lifted the ban.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is questioning whether Duke Power concealed the boundary of its hydropower operation on the Oconaluftee River to avoid sharing a portion of its profits with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Talitha and Louis Mes erected a 100-foot tall wind tower on a ridge above Crabtree last week to generate environmentally-friendly power for their home, marking the first privately installed wind turbine in this part of the mountains.

Every few weeks, Scotty Ellis cruises the newspaper classifieds, scans Web sites and scrounges brochures from kiosks at visitor centers looking for vacation homes to rent in Haywood County.

Preliminary results of a zip code market analysis being conducted in Waynesville shows signs of a strong and healthy retail economy.

A former Haywood County school employee and Haywood Builder’s Supply have been cleared of wrongdoing in connection with an off-the-books spending account established at the store.

Today’s economy is amazingly complex. Niches of the most obscure order have been found and filled, giving birth to a spectrum of jobs most people don’t realize existed.

Duke Power discounted accusations last week that a portion of the hydropower operation on the Oconaluftee River extends onto tribal land belonging to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Developers of a strip shopping complex at the site of the old Dayco factory in Waynesville are asking for several exemptions to the town’s land-use plan, including the height of signs, building appearance and parking lot design.

Swain County commissioners informally agreed to consider mountainside development regulations at a meeting last Tuesday (July 11) during what amounted to a free-form discussion between commissioners and audience members about growth.

Ted White, a bass player with Whitewater Bluegrass Company, was warming up backstage at a Folkmoot performance last year when a Cyprus fiddler struck upon a melody everyone recognized, spurring a lively, impromptu jam among a hodge-podge of international musicians.

A rafting and tubing outfitter on the upper Tuckasegee River in Jackson County claims he is being slighted in a tug-of-war over water flows that favor rafting companies downstream.

Developers of a proposed big box complex in Waynesville are seeking several exemptions from the town’s land-use plan. Waynesville has won several state and national awards for its progressive land-use plan, aimed at preserving the unique small town character.

Cedarwood Development is no stranger to big box developments like the one the company is proposing in Waynesville. The company is not new to demands for better looking big box stores either, according to a review of similar projects built by Cedarwood in other cities around the country.

A proposed big box development featuring a Home Depot and Super Wal-Mart as anchor stores would bring a $45 million investment to the town of Waynesville, according to Haywood County Economic Development Director Mark Clasby.

Controversy over a paddling ban on the upper Chattooga River attracted more than 125 people to a public meeting in Highlands last week held by the U.S. Forest Service.

Paddlers are challenging the 30-year-old ban, while fishermen, hikers, birdwatchers and other wilderness solitude seekers are lobbying to keep the ban in place. The forest service is conducting a two-year study to determine whether the ban is justified.

The Swain County Board of Commissioners heard concerns from a county election board member last week over the adequacy of the county’s early voting station.

Brenda Fowler’s customers usually keep her posted of the latest news and gossip when they stop in at her produce stand on South Main Street in Waynesville. But word of a big-box development sporting Home Depot and Super Wal-Mart coming to the closed-down Dayco factory a stone’s throw away hadn’t yet circulated when a reporter stopped by gathering opinions on the proposed development last week.

“You can do better.”

That was the message last week from Waynesville town leaders to developers of a Super Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Staples complex being considered in the former Dayco site in west Waynesville. The developers are seeking a slate of exemptions from the town’s land-use plan intended to preserve the town’s character.

The elk herd in Cataloochee Valley added at least eight babies to its ranks this summer, giving the herd a needed population boost.

Since the elk herd was released in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park five years ago, black bears have become adept at scooping up the infant elk in the early weeks after their birth. The number of elk calves who survived each year were just enough to replace adult elk who died, keeping the herd’s numbers around a constant 50.