After a closed session discussion during its Aug. 20 meeting, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to buy a pair of properties along Haywood Road in Dillsboro as part of a plan to remake the county’s existing Green Energy Park. 

The organization tasked with managing homeless services in Jackson County for the year ahead received official status as a federal nonprofit this month. 

Western Carolina University’s newest chancellor is fairly certain that, of the teachers and students she knew years ago while pursuing her undergraduate degree, none would have guessed that she’d one day end up leading a thriving campus of 11,000 students. 

More than 300 people crowded Innovation Station in Dillsboro on Monday, Aug. 19, to sip a beer and shake hands with WCU’s new chancellor, Kelli Brown, who holds a Ph.D. in education. 

It’s been two years since discussions began about the possibility of removing the Cullowhee Dam, and it could take years more to complete the additional studies needed to make a decision about removal and to raise the funds necessary to actually do it. 

Based on information presented at a joint government meeting in Jackson County July 23, The Smoky Mountain News reported in its July 31 issue that an updated list of businesses slated for relocation as a result of the N.C. 107 project in Sylva now numbered 39, not the 55 businesses and organizations named in the preliminary plans released last year. 

Jackson County residents will have the chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at how county government works during the third annual Citizens Academy, which has extended the call for applications through Sept. 5. 

CORRECTION: Due to inaccurate information presented at the July 23 government meeting when the road project was discussed, the number of businesses slated for relocation in the story is incorrect. The project will require relocation of businesses located on 39 parcels of property, but the total number of businesses on those parcels is 55. The list of businesses included with the story names all 55 businesses.

The number of businesses to be displaced by the upcoming N.C. 107 project in Sylva could be fewer than the 54 named in last spring’s preliminary plans, but the cost and duration of the project will be greater than initially expected, according to an update N.C. Department of Transportation Division Engineer Brian Burch gave to an assemblage of Jackson County’s elected leaders last week. 

A group of residents living along South River Road in Jackson County say they’ve noticed an uptick in the number of speeders and commercial vehicles along the rural two-lane, and they’re asking the N.C. Department of Transportation to do something about it. 

Eleven people were appointed to the Jackson County Board of Health on Tuesday, July 16, following a 4-1 vote from the Board of Commissioners.