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1 week ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
Editor’s note: Words in italics were among the evening’s spelling words. On a warm spring evening, there was fiery competition brewing at the 11th annual Kiwanis Adult “No Sweat” Spelling Bee, held April 4 at Waynesville First United Methodist Church.
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1 week ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
Haywood County Schools face a litany of budget challenges but won’t be cutting next year’s budget — instead opting to dip into savings to cover the gap rather than compromise on education. The Haywood County Schools system is ranked sixth in the state in academic performance out of 115 school districts, up from seventh the year before. “We have the magic sauce,” Superintendent Dr. Trevor Putnam said. Right behind Haywood County Schools this year was Wake County.
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2 weeks ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
A triumphant victory in mining rock for Interstate 40 slide repairs from the nearby national forest was announced by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration two weeks ago — but the reality isn’t quite what was telegraphed by the agency.
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2 weeks ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
A man writing with sidewalk chalk in front of the Haywood County Historic Courthouse was handcuffed and arrested by sheriff’s deputies on Thursday after he refused to leave public property. Nate Roberto only got part of his message written — spelling out “Fund Haywoo….” in giant letters. The entire message, had he been allowed to finish it, would have read “Fund Haywood County Schools.”“A deputy approached and said ‘Hey, you can’t be doing that down here.’ And I said ‘What, chalk?
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3 weeks ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
Good news on the Cruso fire front: new mapping of the fire's footprint puts the acreage at 1,851 acres as of Wednesday, slightly smaller than previous calculations. Meanwhile, fire movement has been slim. Nearly 180 personnel are working on the fire — plus one local Cruso man who volunteered his knowledge of the land to help firefighters scout locations for fire containment lines.
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3 weeks ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
Walmart was evacuated and the parking lot cordoned off as a blast radius after a bomb threat was found on a bathroom stall Tuesday afternoon. The message was noticed by an employee around 3 p.m.“They found a note written on one of the stalls in the men’s room about a bomb,” Waynesville Police Chief David Adams said. The store promptly called the police. “We assisted them with evacuating the store,” Adams said. An announcement to evacuate was made over the loud speaker.
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3 weeks ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
“Uh-oh, that can’t be good,” thought Johnny Robinson when he spied a plume of smoke rising from a wooded hillside in Cruso on Wednesday afternoon. “It started out like a little old pillar of smoke. It went up that draw within 15 to 30 minutes,” said Robinson, who had been cleaning up some of the latest high-wind storm debris at a campground across the road. Soon, engines from fire departments across the county were pouring into Cruso, and a Chinook helicopter began making water drops.
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3 weeks ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
The Rattlesnake Branch Fire that’s been burning in Cruso since Wednesday grew to 790 acres within the first 48 hours, but a clever strategy to steer the fire toward the unpopulated Shining Rock Wilderness has paid off. More than 80 firefighters from state and local fire departments and specialized wildland fire crews with the U.S. Forest Service are battling the blaze. “We are taking an offensive proactive approach,” said Allison Richmond, Haywood Emergency Services public information officer.
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4 weeks ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
A clever strategy to steer the Cruso fire toward the unpopulated Shining Rock Wilderness has been paying off. “We are taking an offensive proactive approach,” said Allison Richmond, Haywood Emergency Services public information officer. “We are working this fire intentionally around properties that are near the fire line, so it doesn’t come onto their property in an uncontrolled way.
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4 weeks ago | 
themountaineer.com | Becky Johnson
The wildfire that started in Cruso Wednesday afternoon reached over 200 acres by Wednesday night and continued to grow in size overnight, with 0% containment. The Rattlesnake Branch Fire started on a hillside about half a mile from the Cruso Fire Department along U.S. 276. It spread quickly upslope, crossing into the Shining Rock Wilderness and Cold Mountain area of the Pisgah National Forest. The Shining Rock Wilderness area is closed to the public, including all trails.
