Three Swain County Department of Social Services board members, Chairman Jim Gribble, Wall Treadway and Bob Thomas, resigned Thursday, March 10 following the Swain County commissioners’ statement on Wednesday that they should resign after not suspending the Director of the DSS during an emergency DSS board meeting Tuesday.
Robert White and Vice-Chairman Frela Beck did not resign.

DSS Fiscal Officer Kim Hight confirmed the resignations stating they had been immediate and explained that copies of letters of resignation aren’t available to the public.

One system, Macon County, has found some solutions others may learn from

Five percent. Ten percent. Fifteen percent.

As superintendent of Macon County schools, Dan Brigman balances numbers and percentages in his head all day. But these intervals of five are particularly bothersome.

In January, the North Carolina Department of Instruction, the branch of state government that most closely handles education funding, informed school superintendents across the state to prepare for education cuts beginning on July 1 in anticipation of the state’s massive budget shortfall. With competing proposals being released, how big and where those budget cuts will be is yet to be determined.

Investigators for the Macon County Sheriff's Office have arrested a man suspected in a series of recent burglaries in neighborhoods south of Franklin.

John Patrick Maloney, 56, originally from Boston, Mass., but now a Macon County resident on Terrell Rd., was arrested on Sunday and charged with nine felonies, including at least four counts of breaking and entering.

The investigation was launched after a number of burglaries were reported in neighborhoods south of Franklin and in the Terrell Rd. neighborhood east of Hwy 441 South. The first incidents, which occurred in late February, were reported to Franklin Police Department. Sheriff’s deputies initiated a follow-up investigation on possible suspects and uncovered the trail which led to Maloney.

Board ‘disappointed’ with actions of DSS

Swain County Commissioners released a statement on Wednesday condemning the inaction of the Swain County Department of Social Services Board and requesting that the members resign their posts.

The strongly worded statement pits the two county offices against one another following an emergency DSS board meeting Tuesday. DSS board members failed to take action on a recommendation by commissioners to suspend DSS employees being investigated in the January death of 16-month-old Aubrey Littlejohn.