Former Town of Franklin employee Mike Decker has recently moved to county work, after more than a decade of service to the town.

With Wilma Anderson stepping down at the end of the month as Macon County’s Human Resources Director and Deputy Clerk to the Board of Commissioners, Decker will step in to take on her duties.

“Let’s make it real clear, I’m not replacing Wilma,” said Decker. “Nobody could. I’m just going to try to fill the position.”

WNC Communities as announced Southeast Livestock Exchange has scheduled the first livestock sale at the WNC Regional Livestock Center at 474 Stock Drive in Canton for Monday, March 21, at noon with future sales to be conducted on Mondays thereafter. Cattle can be received at the WNC Regional Livestock Center on Sundays from 1 to 7 p.m. and Mondays beginning at 7 a.m.

It is important to note all livestock traffic should use the industrial entrance to the new livestock market which is Freedom Drive to Beaverdam Road. The following are specific directions traveling from the east or west.

Change in light color to alert drivers better

When David Lynn opened his door July 12, 2010, he saw a large truck headed straight for him.

“I pulled my leg back in and braced myself,” he said. The truck slammed into Lynn’s pickup, bashing and ripping metal.

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.

Bill Stiles of Stiles Healthcare Strategies, Inc. reports progress on the survey being conducted with the Healthy Carolinians of Macon County.

Megan Ehrenkaufer, a 21-year-old woman from Scaly Mountain, N.C., involved in a devastating two-vehicle collision on Feb. 18, remains in serious condition in the trauma ward at Mission Memorial Hospital in Asheville, however she is making steady progress.

On Wednesday morning, Doris Ehrenkaufer, Megan’s grandmother, confirmed that last week the young woman had been moved out of the hospital’s intensive care unit where she had been admitted for neuro-trauma care after the accident. The small car she was driving crashed into a tractor-trailer truck traveling in the opposite direction on Hwy. 441 South.

Decision unanimous by Town

Two voluntary annexation petitions were voted upon at Monday’s Town of Franklin Board of Aldermen meeting—one approved and one denied.

The first petition for annexation up for consideration was for the site of the future Wal-Mart Supercenter on Dowdle Mountain Road. The property of the site is owned by Joe and Emma Jean Taylor. The petition was approved unanimously, with no one from the public speaking for or against the matter.

Swain County Commissioners officially recommended by a 4 to 1 vote that the Department of Social Services Board suspend four employees with pay during an ongoing investigation into alleged wrongdoing by the DSS, Thursday (Mar. 3), following an emergency meeting between the DSS Board and the Commissioners.

Commissioners pointed out they took this action for the sake of the program and that it is not about the guilt or innocence of the employees. By calling for the suspension it allows the investigation to go forward and helps to clear the air while assuring the public that DSS is able to provide needed services.