A milestone was reached last Friday when the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) assumed ownership of the Hall Mountain tract of land in the Cowee Community just north of Franklin. The 108 acres overlooks the Cowee Mound and will host a series of hiking trails in hopes that it may be used as an educational resource for schools in the area as well as the public. The celebration took place at 7339 Bryson City Road.

The project first began in 2005 with the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and the Wilderness Society playing important roles in the project. The funding come from the USDA Forest Service Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program.

Money and cartons of cigarettes among items stolen.

The Ingles store on West Palmer Street was burglarized sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. Store employees went to work Wednesday morning to find the lock to the front door had been cut.

The perpetrators made off with money from the store's cash registers and safe as well as multiple cartons of cigarettes. A blow torch was used to cut out a hole in the bottom portion of the safe while the top portion where money that would have been sent to the bank for deposit along with lottery tickets went untouched. They used water from jugs taken off of the shelves of the store to cool the metal down in order to reach inside.

Public comment hearing on the budget set for Tuesday.

The Macon County Board of Education (BOE) met with county commissioners Tuesday night for a work session to continue to try to work through budget constraints. The BOE is facing a budget shortfall this year and made its final attempt to secure funds Tuesday night, requesting $440,000 from the county in addition to funds that have already been granted. The schools originally approached the county with a request of $9.6 million for the 2013- 2014 school year, but were only granted $7.1 million.

At the county commissioner's budget work session that took place last Thursday, Sheriff Robert Holland presented his department's budget for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

The Sheriff's Department had 13,337 emergency calls last year which translates to 37 calls each day, along with 13,740 walk-ins and 16,391 non-emergency calls for a total of 43,000 or 119 incidents a day.

One of the budget items Holland brought to the attention of the commissioners was a request for funding of updated SRT (Special Response Team) or SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) equipment to replace bullet proof vests and helmets for the officer's safety in conducting SWAT operations.

“Our equipment is like most things, it has a shelf-life,” he said. “The shelf-life on our equipment has been expired for several years now.”