Franklin, NC
Dates to remember: None
CULLOWHEE - Western Carolina University alumna Beth Tyson Lofquist, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, has been named the university’s associate provost.
Provost Kyle Carter said the title change, effective Monday, Sept. 15, reflects Lofquist’s increasing responsibility within the Office of the Provost, which oversees every aspect of academics at WCU.
“The university is [...]
STATEWIDE-Hiker Scot Ward started his walk on May 23 at Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smokies. He finished it yesterday, 930 miles later, at Jockey’s Ridge State Park on the Outer Banks.
In between, he hiked North Carolina’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a serpentine (and incomplete) trail that goes from one end of the state to another.
Read the [...]
STATEWIDE-North Carolina’s new state payroll system, called “Beacon”, has wrinkles.
From the Raleigh News and Observer:
Employees across North Carolina have spent months trying to resolve problems with paychecks that are sometimes more than $1,000 short. Pay stubs are confusing, and state workers say they cannot keep track of how much they’re owed.
Officials have downplayed the problems, [...]
Residents of the Cullowhee community joined together some months back in an effort to trigger new vitality in the old Cullowhee area.
Their organization is called the Cullowhee Revitalization Endeavor (CuRvE), and can be accessed through its website, here.
“Downtown” Cullowhee is an area southeast of campus, along old NC 107 near the former main entrance to [...]
CATALOOCHEE-When Charlotte Observer and McClatchy environmental writer Bruce Henderson ran a piece on the ongoing death of the american hemlock a couple of weeks back, it got some notice.
It was a well done story.
They’ll soon be gone, these evergreen anchors of our forests, victims of a combination of acid rain, drought, and a bug called [...]
SYLVA-Here in scenic Sylva, police and downtown property owners have been pestered in recent months by a spate of graffiti vandalism.
The work of the vandals has appeared on at least a dozen buildings and billboards over the course of the summer, including the facade of the SunTrust Bank building — visible from our house as [...]
DILLSBORO-The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last Thursday denied Jackson County’s petition for a stay of all activities associated with Duke Energy Carolina’s planned removal of the 95 year-old Dillsboro Dam.
Jackson County had requested the stay pending certain judicial and administrative proceedings.
In theory, the FERC denial clears the way for Duke to begin the process of [...]
SYLVA-During it’s Thursday (09.18.08) meeting, Sylva’s town board declined to grant a zoning ordinance amendment for proposed high-density housing near the intersection of Yellowbird Branch and Savannah Drive.
The Residential Planned Unit Development overlay (RPUD), would’ve allowed the construction of a series of townhomes on property previously zoned R-1.
Board members Ray Lewis, Harold Hensley and Maurice [...]
RALEIGH-On Oct. 1, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will implement annual delayed-harvest regulations for 20 designated trout waters in 14 counties in western North Carolina.
These regulations apply to two popular spots in our area: the Tuckasegee River from Love’s Field Bridge south of Sylva to Dillsboro Dam, and the Nanatahala River in Macon County, from [...]
NEW YORK/CULLOWHEE-Roger Cohen is an editor for the International Herald Tribune and columnist for the New York Times. He’s one of the best at that level right now, writing comfortably and insightfully from any continent, with refreshingly clear vision. He sees the big picture.
In today’s Times column, he ties current market crises to what he [...]