Haywood County native behind ‘#trashtag’ sensation

A trending hashtag … err … #trashtag has been gaining worldwide attention for encouraging people to photograph pictures of the trash they pick up, so it should be no surprise that the person who came up with the idea is from rural Haywood County in rugged, scenic Western North Carolina.

Pigeon Center vandalized by intruders

A broken window, classrooms in shambles, irreplaceable items destroyed, kitchen coolers left open and perishable food thrown all over the floors — that’s what Tausha and Lynn Forney walked in to find last week at the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville. 

Ten years gone: Waynesville board weighs progress, prospects

On Friday, Jan. 29 at the Lake Logan Conference Center, Waynesville Mayor Gavin Brown convened a board retreat where he and aldermen Caldwell, Feichter and Roberson talked about infrastructure, cemeteries, and the general financial status of the town. 

Waynesville closed sessions boring, but by the book

The Town of Waynesville Board of Aldermen meets every two weeks, or about 24 times a year, depending on the calendar. 

Citizens Police Academy still seeking applicants

Not long after retired U.S. Air Force officer and former teacher Mary Ford moved to Waynesville with her husband, she decided to enroll in something called the Waynesville Civilian Police Academy. The next year, she found herself in charge. 

Devil on my shoulder: With new live album, The Get Right Band to play Boojum

The hardest balance for a rock band is to straddle the line between honest emotions in your lyrics and also simply being able to get people to groove along to what beats and tones swirl around the wordplay. 

Living soil: Waynesville woman digs into worm farming

Valley View Worms has an origin story that’s about as unusual as the vermiculture business itself, with plotlines hinging on a Facebook post, a felony conviction and 60 pounds of red wiggler composting worms. 

African-American history at Sunburst oft overlooked

In a county as old as Haywood, there exist all manner of half-remembered places and faces long gone from the physical world yet immortalized through penciled notes on the backs of dog-eared, sepia-toned photographs.

Sunburst, in southeastern Haywood County, is one of those places; the subject of intense historical research, it’s been documented better than most ghosts of Haywood past, but the story of Sunburst has always been short one chapter. 

Spate of new downtown Waynesville businesses emerges

With his thick Brooklyn accent, Danny Mannlein isn’t exactly the type of “local” most Haywood County residents are used to seeing, but as Waynesville’s downtown business district continues to boom, more and more people like him are making Main Street their commercial home. 

Race against time for Waynesville homeless camp

The longstanding brouhaha over a makeshift dwelling near Frog Level has escalated to the point where enforcement action is likely in the coming days. 

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