The Southern Highland Reader

SYLVA–The lauded expansion of Sylva’s Jackson Paper Manufacturing Company has come to a halt.

Stonewall Packaging, LLC, launched in spring of 2009, has announced it will close its doors.

The century old Jackson Paper plant that dominates downtown Sylva is not affected by the closing — Stonewall Packaging, located in a renovated facility further out Scotts Creek, will close, eliminating 43 jobs.

Jackson Paper makes corrugating medium — the zig-zag paper inside the walls of cardboard. Stonewall Packaging used the medium to produce complete cardboard.

Company representatives say that a major purchaser of their product backed out, leaving them no choice but to close.

More here from the Asheville Citizen-Times.

CHEROKEE–The Cherokee Preservation Foundation, funded by gaming revenues produced by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, began making economic development grants in 2002. Since then, it has awarded 487 grants totaling nearly $40 million. Every dollar of the Foundation’s support has been matched by $1.41 in secured grants or other funding or in-kind resources, making the foundation’s total contribution to the region more than $95 million.

The Foundation’s focus is on project, planning and capacity initiatives that will enhance the Cherokee culture, facilitate economic development and job opportunities, and improve the environment. We are helping the EBCI and its neighbors address challenges that include the loss of jobs from manufacturing plant closures, potential environmental degradation due to increased traffic and localized growth in specific areas, the deteriorating growth of small and medium businesses in the region, and a decline in visits from tourists to Cherokee cultural events and institutions.

Yesterday the Foundation released a film detailing its efforts. View the film below …

SYLVA–Sylva town leaders, in a unanimous vote, have named former Economic Development Commission board member Chris Matheson to fill an empty seat on their board.

The vote at Thursday’s meeting filled the seat vacated by newly-elected mayor Maurice Moody.

The naming of Moody’s replacement had been the focus of speculation, because on the frequently ideologically divided board Moody often provided the “swing” vote.

Thursday night’s proceeding before a packed house was the final meeting for Sylva’s longtime mayor, Brenda Oliver. Oliver has served as mayor since 1991, and was a town board member for a decade prior to that.

The meeting was also the last for board member Harold Hensley, who was unseated in recent elections. Hensley was replaced by Danny Allen, a previous board member who won re-election. Also sworn in was incumbent Stacy Knotts. Knotts and Allen were the top vote-getters among five candidates for two seats on the board.

Some, including the newspaper The Sylva Herald, had argued that Hensley, as the third-highest vote-getter in the November elections, should’ve been appointed to fill Moody’s seat.

Coverage from the Smoky Mountain News here.

Coverage from the Sylva Herald here. (Link expires in one week)

REGIONAL–Asheville Citizen-Times editorial page editor and columnist Jim Buchanan (a Sylva native) notes in a Sunday column that North Carolina was recently named number one in the nation in terms of its business climate by Site Selection, an economic development magazine.

It’s the eighth time in nine years that the tarheel state has been so named.

Buchanan points out that the warm-hearth economic climate is limited to certain parts of the state.

An excerpt:

North Carolina’s business climate, it seems, is a lot like its … well, climate. Different parts of the state have markedly different weather. And looking at the Site report, it seems the same applies to business weather.

In the Charlotte/Raleigh corridor and the Research Triangle area, the business climate is blindingly beautiful. Business partnerships with universities and colleges are humming along, and the area has transitioned well from the tobacco/textiles/furniture economy to finance, medical and energy concerns.

<snip>

No silver bullet solution to the economic downturn or economic unevenness came out of our board conversation. Instead, many familiar issues and questions resurfaced, like the geographical and transportation challenges that are unique to the mountains. And frankly, blue-skying about economic development is fine, but that’s down the road. The task at hand for our leaders in a time of rolling credit crisis, high unemployment and an era of want most of us have never witnessed in our lifetimes is to simply make sure the social fabric doesn’t rip clean apart.

Read the whole piece here.

STATEWIDE–Tourism promotion is a trendy business, with lots of seminars, theories, conferences and back-patting.

And you’ve heard the resulting catch-phrases: “destination tourism”, in which travelers are drawn to a thing (say the second biggest tree in the southwest corner of the county, or a theme park); “heritage tourism” (visit because of a culture, just not the dominant one); “ecotourism” (find places that are really pristine because no one goes there, then go there); and stay tuned for “civic tourism”, in which travelers find a little town they like and immerse themselves in it, like a hot tub.

Well, heritage tourism, from a state marketing perspective, is getting a little long in the tooth. We saw evidence of that yesterday, when the North Carolina Department of Commerce, which oversees travel and tourism efforts, slashed a bunch of heritage tourism jobs.

Here’s Jordan Schrader’s lead in the Asheville Citizen-Times:

RALEIGH — Budget-trimming lawmakers mostly kept their hands off economic development efforts, figuring North Carolina needs jobs now more than ever.

They made an exception, though, for the employees who promote tourism for the state’s small-town historic and cultural attractions.

Budget knives cut deeply into the jobs known as heritage tourism development officers. Two-thirds of positions were eliminated.

Read the whole piece here.

Here’s another excerpt:

[Rep. Phil] Haire, a Sylva Democrat, and Sen. Joe Sam Queen, a Waynesville Democrat who has been an advocate of adding more heritage tourism positions, said the reduction reflects the Commerce Department’s recommendations for where the budget cuts should fall.

“I think Western North Carolina has come out good on the balance here, but in the priorities of the state, the Commerce Department’s priorities, I think this was just toward the bottom,” Queen said.

Queen hopes the jobs will be restored in a better budget. He’s an advocate for heritage tourism projects like the department’s effort to have the Rutherford Trace designated a national heritage trail.

In 1776, Revolutionary War Gen. Griffith Rutherford led more than 2,000 militiamen from Old Fort to raid and burn Cherokee villages all the way to Murphy. It was a key part of the resistance to the British and their Indian allies, and the beginning of Cherokee removal, Queen said.

Queen said North Carolina’s stories — even violent ones like the Rutherford Trace — need to be told. “There’s no better way to promote your region than to promote your authentic selves,” Queen said.