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 Commissioners’ Chairman Stacy Buchanan resigns - For the second time in the past decade, Jackson County’s elected commissioners’ chairman has resigned midway through his term. Stacy Buchanan, who was elected a commissioner in 1998 and won the chairman’s seat in 2002, announced Monday that he would leave his post effective June 30. Buchanan, a teacher and coach at Smoky Mountain High School....
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Blue Ridge sex scandal suit to proceed against all defendants - A lawsuit brought by the mother of a teen involved in the sex scandal that rocked Blue Ridge School almost four years ago will proceed against all defendants now that the N.C. Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by Superior Court Judge Marlene Hyatt. The case has been stalled since November 2002 when Hyatt ruled in favor of the plaintiff....
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 Cullowhee’s Byer is state’s poet laureate - Gov. Mike Easley last week appointed Cullowhee’s Kay Byer as Poet Laureate of North Carolina. As poet laureate, Byer will serve as an ambassador of the state’s literature, Easley said. “Byer’s talents have earned her many honors and awards, and I know she will be an outstanding representative of North Carolina’s rich literary arts,” he said. “She will be an important....
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 Blanton’s ‘garden’ - After half a century of pastoring Jackson County’s churches, including 25 years at Deitz Memorial Baptist Church, the Rev. Robert Blanton now spends weekdays tending congregations of plants in the greenhouse at the Hub, Jackson County Schools’ alternative learning....
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 Soon-to-be shooting range? - This old house is located on the old Bob Pressley property on Tilley Creek, a 194-acre tract that may be purchased for a shooting range. According to Tilley Creek resident Perry Eury, Smoke Rise Field Club of Cashiers is negotiating with owner Sam Matthews of Cullowhee to buy the land and plans to relocate its shooting range there. Matthews previously opposed the club’s proposed move to property near his Caney Fork home. Eury and others on Tilley Creek oppose the gun club’s plans, and commissioners are....
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WCU professor may be called to testify in Eric Rudolph trial - A local professor may soon find himself making history rather than teaching it. Curtis Wood, a member of the Western Carolina University history department faculty since 1969, may be called to testify during the federal trial of Eric Rudolph, who is accused of bombing a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic in early 1998, killing an off-duty police officer and maiming a clinic nurse. Rudolph was linked to the case when a man driving his pickup was spotted in Birmingham near the scene of the crime. Rudolph vanished....
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Tennessee public works director named TWSA head - A man who’s coached “about every sport around,” announced high school football games and helped to pastor what he calls “a little country church” has been selected as the next director of the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority. Joe Cline, 43, is currently public works director for the town of Englewood, Tenn., a community of about 1,600 located halfway between Knoxville and Chatanooga. In his 12 years at that post....
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Airport Authority elects officers - Duly sworn-in members of the Jackson County Airport Authority met Feb. 23 and elected officers, though at least one member doubts their legitimacy. Gary Buchanan was chosen chairman, Chip Hall vice chairman and new member Ed Riley was tapped to be secretary-treasurer. None of the votes was unanimous. Buchanan, who had been named interim chairman during the group’s Feb. 9 meeting, presided over the election, which he said was to choose officers....
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