So retirees should relinquish rights?
 

So retirees should relinquish rights?

To the Editor: I am completely mystified by a recent letter writer’s response to my letter questioning the legitimacy of…
Read More

Comment

Business dedicated to saving bees
 

Business dedicated to saving bees

Spriggly’s Beescaping is a new small business located in Waynesville that offers workshops, products, and services to create environments that…
Read More

Comment

Haywood County manager resigns
 

Haywood County manager resigns

Haywood County Manager Ira Dove has resigned; a resignation letter was sent out the morning of Oct. 4 from Candace Way,…
Read More

Comment

Déjà vu: candidates walk familiar path
 

Déjà vu: candidates walk familiar path

A spate of early announcements by local candidates hoping to gain seats in the North Carolina General Assembly may have…
Read More

Comment

Jackson restricts some referendums to high-turnout elections
 

Jackson restricts some referendums to high-turnout elections

The Jackson County Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Sept. 18 that will limit referendum votes on sales tax increases and…
Read More

Comment

Swain installs Charters of Freedom
 

Swain installs Charters of Freedom

Swain County officials came together last week to dedicate the Charters of Freedom monument that can now be seen just…
Read More

Comment

Swain elections director to sue county
 

Swain elections director to sue county

Swain County Elections Director Joan Weeks recently informed the board of elections that she hired a lawyer and planned to…
Read More

Comment

Waynesville inclusive playground approved
 

Waynesville inclusive playground approved

Play, it is said, is the work of children. But a substantial population of disabled kids who’ve up until now…
Read More

Comment

Election Board orders runoff race in Birdtown; candidate files suit in Tribal Court
 

Election Board orders runoff race in Birdtown; candidate files suit in Tribal Court

Uproar over the results of an election recount in the race to represent Cherokee’s Birdtown community on Tribal Council has…
Read More

Comment

Cherokee’s attorney general resigns
 

Cherokee’s attorney general resigns

The attorney general of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians appointed during the administration of Principal Chief Patrick Lambert has…
Read More

Comment

Cherokee outlaws backpay with Council pay hikes
 

Cherokee outlaws backpay with Council pay hikes

During its last days before swearing in newly elected members, the Cherokee Tribal Council unanimously passed an ordinance amendment that…
Read More

Comment

Riverbend named Blue Ribbon School
 

Riverbend named Blue Ribbon School

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the 2017 National Blue Ribbon Schools, which included Riverbend Elementary School in Haywood…
Read More

Comment

Canton continues pondering pigs as pets
 

Canton continues pondering pigs as pets

Giggles, snickers, snorts and outright laughter echoed through the Town of Canton’s Sept. 28 board meeting as an ordinance regarding…
Read More

Comment

Waynesville aldermen throw dogs a bone
 

Waynesville aldermen throw dogs a bone

Although Waynesville aldermen continue to seek a definitive answer on whether or not to rescind the town’s 15 year-old policy…
Read More

Comment

Haywood Pathways Center expansion to help homeless
 

Haywood Pathways Center expansion to help homeless

The causes of homelessness — and homelessness in Haywood County — are varied and numerous, but according to the Haywood…
Read More

Comment

Tourism board looks to change grant funding methods
 

Tourism board looks to change grant funding methods

The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority is considering a number of major changes to increase its efficiency in collecting and…
Read More

Comment

Franklin approves brunch bill with little fanfare
 

Franklin approves brunch bill with little fanfare

The Franklin Town Council unanimously approved the local adoption of the brunch bill, which will allow restaurants and stores to…
Read More

Comment

Sylva approves Sunday morning alcohol sales
 

Sylva approves Sunday morning alcohol sales

Sylva has joined the growing list of towns and counties approving Sunday morning alcohol sales following a 4-1 vote Sept.…
Read More

Comment

Waynesville to reinstitute capacity use fees
 

Waynesville to reinstitute capacity use fees

Thanks to the N.C. Supreme Court and the North Carolina General Assembly, the Town of Waynesville’s about to be back…
Read More

Comment

Franklin football banner incites religious debate
 

Franklin football banner incites religious debate

At a Friday night football game against Murphy, the Franklin High School cheerleaders took to the field like they do…
Read More

Comment

WNC falls into October
 

WNC falls into October

Amid the innumerable reasons why we love Western North Carolina, the fall foliage of October might be the one key…
Read More

Comment

Time of the season: WNC falls into October
 

Time of the season: WNC falls into October

Amid the innumerable reasons we love Western North Carolina, the fall foliage of October might be the common denominator that…
Read More

Comment

Autumn leaves must fall, but not before being a WNC tourism draw
 

Autumn leaves must fall, but not before being a WNC tourism draw

It’s September in the hills when Western Carolina University’s fall foliage forecaster Beverly Collins attempts to quantify the quality of…
Read More

Comment

This must be the place: ‘You never slow down, you never grow old’
 

This must be the place: ‘You never slow down, you never grow old’

Tom Petty. I can’t remember a time without him and his band’s music in my life. It’s always been there,…
Read More

Comment

Tourism board looks to change funding committees
 

Tourism board looks to change funding committees

The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority is considering a number of changes to increase its efficiency in collecting and allocating…
Read More

Comment

Wildlife through a lens: Highlands couple explores the outdoors one photograph at a time
 

Wildlife through a lens: Highlands couple explores the outdoors one photograph at a time

The years since retirement have been anything but dull for Highlands residents Ed and Cindy Boos. From Ecuador to Kenya…
Read More

Comment

A wall can’t stop these migrants
 

A wall can’t stop these migrants

Regrettably a wall through desert and riparian lowlands along the Mexico-U.S. border will have terrible effects on terrestrial fauna whose…
Read More

Comment

Miss Julia’s saga is well worth the read
 

Miss Julia’s saga is well worth the read

Miss Julia Springer lives in a small town near Asheville, where she is mourning the death of her husband of…
Read More

Comment

Hand on heart or on bended knee — Americans all
 

Hand on heart or on bended knee — Americans all

This is what it means to be an American. I’m talking about NFL players and coaches and owners uniting to…
Read More

Comment

Learning to let my emotions breathe
 

Learning to let my emotions breathe

I’ve always been prone to bouts of melancholy. I’m not sure if it’s a writer thing or a woman thing…
Read More

Comment

‘Stranger Things” and DACA truth
 

‘Stranger Things” and DACA truth

To the Editor: With all the news of DACA and how the changes will affect many people including some family,…
Read More

Comment

Immigrants need to assimilate
 

Immigrants need to assimilate

To the Editor: A common sense response is necessary to the foolish arguments in a letter printed in a recent…
Read More

Comment

Park’s fire response was woefully inadequate
 

Park’s fire response was woefully inadequate

To the Editor: Regarding the Chimney Tops 2 wildfire review article, my stomach clenched as I read quotes from the…
Read More

Comment

Safety to improve at Bryson City intersections
 

Safety to improve at Bryson City intersections

Improvements may be coming to five intersections in Bryson City that would increase safety for drivers and pedestrians.
Read More

Comment

Green air in the Blue Ridge
 

Green air in the Blue Ridge

A report recently issued by the Land of Sky Clean Vehicles Coalition clears the air about Haywood County’s greenhouse gas…
Read More

Comment

WCU total student enrollment tops 11,000
 

WCU total student enrollment tops 11,000

Records continue to fall by the wayside at Western Carolina University, as total student enrollment has surpassed 11,000 for the…
Read More

Comment

Behind the scenes of SCC’s high-altitude weather balloon launch on eclipse day
 

Behind the scenes of SCC’s high-altitude weather balloon launch on eclipse day

By Julia Hartbarger • SCC Public Relations A little time has passed since the Great American Solar Eclipse on Aug. 21,…
Read More

Comment

Swain schools names interim superintendent
 

Swain schools names interim superintendent

The Swain County Board of Education has named Janet Clapsaddle as interim superintendent of schools after the retirement of Superintendent…
Read More

Comment

Franklin doles out $40K in community funding
 

Franklin doles out $40K in community funding

Every year the Franklin Town Council struggles to meet the needs of the community with only $40,000 to spend on…
Read More

Comment

Macon to receive $100,000 for community needs
 

Macon to receive $100,000 for community needs

Macon County will receive $100,000 to be used for “community purposes” thanks to help from Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin.
Read More

Comment

Franklin meeting gets heated over ABC facility
 

Franklin meeting gets heated over ABC facility

A Franklin Town Council meeting got heated as the mayor and aldermen disagreed over what steps the town should take…
Read More

Comment

Garden of Memory dedicated at Lake Junaluska
 

Garden of Memory dedicated at Lake Junaluska

The Lake Junaluska Columbarium and Garden of Memory was recently dedicated during a worship service in Memorial Chapel.
Read More

Comment

Drug bust in Hazelwood
 

Drug bust in Hazelwood

On Sept. 7, the Waynesville Police Department’s TAC Unit along with Haywood County’s Multi-jurisdictional Drug Task Force, the U.N.I.T., executed…
Read More

Comment

Tourism, trade could grow with WNC railroad renaissance
 

Tourism, trade could grow with WNC railroad renaissance

Long before the Oct. 3, 1880, arrival of the first scheduled train in Asheville, the American railroad has been romanticized…
Read More

Comment

Regional leaders work for rail growth
 

Regional leaders work for rail growth

One needn’t look further than industries like Sylva’s Jackson Paper, Canton’s Evergreen Packaging and Waynesville’s Giles Chemical for evidence of…
Read More

Comment

Vintage trailers take to Maggie Valley
 

Vintage trailers take to Maggie Valley

Aloha. Aristocrat. Forester. Shasta. Spartan. And of course, Airstream and Winnebago.
Read More

Comment

Seven WNC counties to host Annual Stand Down
 

Seven WNC counties to host Annual Stand Down

By Kurt J. Volker • Contributing writer In cooperation with the seven Veteran Services offices in the WNC region, the Macon…
Read More

Comment

‘Haywood Five’ to face state disloyalty charges
 

‘Haywood Five’ to face state disloyalty charges

Charges of “political party disloyalty” first leveled by the Haywood County Republican Party this past May against a group of…
Read More

Comment

‘Where were you in ‘62?’
 

‘Where were you in ‘62?’

The Jackson County Genealogical Society, winner of Western Carolina University’s 2012 “Mountain Heritage Award,” will host its annual Cruise-In fundraiser…
Read More

Comment

Smokey Mountain News Logo
SUPPORT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Go to top
Payment Information

/

At our inception 20 years ago, we chose to be different. Unlike other news organizations, we made the decision to provide in-depth, regional reporting free to anyone who wanted access to it. We don’t plan to change that model. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News.

The Smoky Mountain News is a wholly private corporation. Reader contributions support the journalistic mission of SMN to remain independent. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. If you have a question about contributing to SMN, please contact us.