The recent addition of eight full-time firefighters to the town of Waynesville — at a cost of $530,000 per year — required a 4.75 cents per $100 property valuation tax increase last June.

Think your honey-do list is long? Wait until you meet Jack Carlisle.

After five years of trying to merge with the town of Waynesville, the Lake Junaluska community has given up and charted a new course for its future.

Verizon Wireless has approached Haywood County commissioners once again about installing a new cell tower near Lake Junaluska to improve service for customers, but this time they feel certain it will be built.

As fall visitors flocked to Western North Carolina in mid-October, Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center welcomed a distinguished visitor — former First Lady Laura Bush and a group of her childhood friends.

The future site of Shining Rock Classical Academy at 1023 Dellwood Road isn’t in the town limits of Waynesville, but that hasn’t stopped the Lake Junaluska Assembly from asking town aldermen to annex the parcel so it can receive municipal services.

Shining Rock Classical Academy leaders were hoping students would start classes this year at a new campus on Dellwood Road, but a delay in getting the modular classrooms installed forced them to change the plan. 

For Tony Campolo, spending last week amid a gathering of senior citizens from across the Southeast was just about the most exciting thing imaginable. And that’s even taking into account that he views “exciting” as an overused word that’s best avoided.

Evening is suspended over Lake Junaluska as doors open for the 8 p.m. Taizé service, its coming fall foretold by the soft-sided clouds gathered over the sinking sun.

The resignation of Lake Junaluska Singers Director Dr. Melodie Galloway comes after one member of the well-known choral group made several written allegations to Junaluska officials after his termination from the group on June 25.