- From the backyard to your table
- Haywood settles into budget norm of making ends meet
- Did that used to be a tree? The tragic legend of the ‘Hazelwood haircut’
- Balsam Range hitting for the home team in Haywood tourism messaging
- Gettin’ together and feelin’ alright
- Ghost Town falls short of summer opening target
- Maggie’s Achilles’ Heel: lack of curb appeal
- Waynesville’s wish of tourist railway derailed out of the gate
A major remodeling job to convert the abandoned Wal-Mart in Clyde to house the Haywood County Department of Social Services could get underway by November. This rendering by Asheville firm Padgett & Freeman Architects shows how the dreary big-box storefront will get a new façade more fitting with the mountains. Contractors are now bidding on the $12.5 million project. The 115,000-square-foot superstore will also serve as home for Haywood’s health department, planning and erosion control, building inspections and environmental health. Commissioners bought the Wal-Mart primarily to move DSS from its crumbling building, which would have required millions to fix up. In August, the county locked down a 40-year rural development loan, funded with federal stimulus money through the USDA, to pay for the project.