The story was originally published in The Sylva Herald, March 19 edition
The Jackson County Board of Commissioners and leaders of the county’s four municipalities gathered for a powow last Tuesday, March 10. The meeting in the Burrell Building on Southwestern Community College’s Campus lasted only about 55 minutes.
County Manager Kevin King gave the assemblage a rundown of some of the upcoming projects around the county.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for April 21 on the new Jackson County Administration Building on Skyland Dr. next to the Service Center, he said.
A 35,000 square foot building would make it possible to move some county services currently in the Administration building on Grindstaff Cove Road.
“This would add a third courtroom to the current Justice Center and move the sheriff’s office to the second floor of the Detention Center,” King said.
Planning and bidding on a 40-bed expansion of the Detention Center will start in the fall of 2026.
“The fairground facility, which is a 24,000 square foot indoor facility, the Charles Elders Event Center near Whittier and then we’ll have an additional 60,000 square foot pavilion for holding events,” King said.
The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad has already planned a visit from Thomas the Tank Engine, King said.
The Jackson County Business Park at the old T&S Hardwoods site on Skyland will be between 250,000 and 400,000 square feet and is in the planning stages. Each building in the business park would utilize between 20,000 square feet and 60,000 square feet. The county hopes to acquire multiple small manufacturers, bringing numerous jobs to Jackson County, King said.
Officials are looking for funding to create a business training center in the same area that the business park will be in.
The Qualla Community will open its pocket park within the next 30 days. Painting still needs to be done to finish the park, as they have been waiting for the weather to change to make painting possible.
The Cashiers and Glenville communities are in the planning stage of opening community parks in that area. Cashiers is also hoping to bring in a primary healthcare center with the help of a grant, hoping to have the medical center decided on within the next three to six months.
“The Center for Domestic Peace is hopefully going to be done in the next 30-60 days,” King said.
There was a delay in its completion due to the primary contractor being called away due to Hurricane Helene emergencies.
Traffic studies are underway around the middle school to be built on the corner of Old Cullowhee Road and N.C. 107.
“I know there’s a lot of concern about traffic and how it’s going to impact the area,” King said. “So we are working with WSI in Raleigh, and they are working on traffic study, and this is kind of in combination with the proposed Ingles facility that they’re looking at doing. So we are kind of working with the same group, the same civil engineer that is on our property is also the one that has been engaged with Ingles for their property.”
King addressed the county’s divorce from the Fontana Regional Library system.
“We are working with the current FRL to look at the amount of equipment and things like that,” King said. “So we are engaged with all the different vendors, you know, shifting that over to the Jackson County Public Library. With that, we have a five year plan. We’re not looking at something that’s going to be stagnant. We’re looking at improvements.”
One of those improvements might be getting library resources out to the various community center in the county.
“The commissioners hope to have a fully functioning library up and running by July 1,” King said. “We can assume that we can operate the library at the current cost if we can operate it with less money. That’s ultimately what you want to accomplish, but that’s going to be something that we’re looking at payroll we’re looking at staffing hours. How do you keep the same operational procedures going without making a major impact? That’s what we’re working on now, to pay per upgrades, to kind of figure out, do we have enough employees to operate as an hour now, or do we need to increase? Do we need to decrease without over staffing?”
Officials have concerns about childcare availability and have county-owned childcare centers in Webster and on Skyland Drive.
Towns report
Sylva Town Manager Paige Dowling offered a PowerPoint presentation to discuss improvements in the parks, such as the Pinnacle Park improvements She also updated downtown Sylva restrooms, the building of Scott’s Creek retaining walls, Bryson Park improvements, Poteet Park’s restroom and pavilion improvements, and redevelopment of N.C. 107 businesses as she discussed the important pieces of each of these topics.
Tim Parris, the mayor of the Town of Dillsboro, talked about the purchase of the Clark property, and how the old hardware store is becoming the new town hall. He mentioned they had started the painting of the building.
The Greenway project is moving along well as they are now talking to the landowners and will be getting soil samples soon. Dillsboro just received a grant to rebuild their sidewalks, making their entrances ADA approved and place new streetlamps on Main St.
Commissioner Brandon Core of Webster spoke on behalf of Mayor Leigh Anne Young who was out of town due to family commitments.
“As far as updates go, I would say at the forefront in Webster is just the ongoing desire for the return of the Webster Post Office,” Core said. “That is something that has been felt hard in our community and has actually brought out the Webster public, more so to our meetings than any other issue that we’ve had in the recent past.”
He said that the U.S. Postal Service was conducting a public comment period, asking the public to comment in writing.
Core said that the address to send comments was posted on the Webster social media page and website and needed to be sent by March 27.
He briefly spoke of traffic safety issues in Webster and concerns over an increase in traffic problems that will be brought in because of the Highway 107 construction.
“Lastly, I wanted to express our sincerest appreciation to Jackson County on behalf of Webster for your role over the last few years in the development of Webster Park,” Core said.
Mayor Ron Mau of the Village of Forest Hills told the gathering that the Village of Forest Hills had recently done a sewerage study of which they were exploring what grants were available to cover it.
The Jackson County Board of Commissioner’s and towns adjourned their meetings.
