Local

Press photo/Will Woolever - Scottish Tartan Museum director Jim Akins and new Blair Building owner Stacy Guffey examine a piece of artwork in the museum’s basement.

Press photo/Will Woolever - Scottish Tartan Museum director Jim Akins and new Blair Building owner Stacy Guffey examine a piece of artwork in the museum’s basement.

Scottish Tartans Museum gets new lease on life

Will Woolever
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
One of downtown Franklin’s most historic buildings has changed hands.  For much of the past two years, former Macon County planner Stacy Guffey has been renovating the Blair Building, otherwise known as the building that houses the Scottish Tartan Museum.
Press photo/Jake Browning - Students in Cynthia Trawick’s fourth-grade class at Cartoogechaye Elementary School practice social distancing.

Press photo/Jake Browning - Students in Cynthia Trawick’s fourth-grade class at Cartoogechaye Elementary School practice social distancing.

K-5 students go back to class four days a week

Jake Browning
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Macon County’s K-5 students will be going to school for in-person instruction Monday through Thursday starting in October.
County commissioners and other local officials meet around a pot-bellied stove in the old courthouse in this photo from about 1970. That’s Dick Jones standing by the stovepipe, next to Sheriff George Moses. Press editor Bob Sloan is standing to the right of a poster for an Ox Roast Festival. County manager Ron Winecoff is in front of Sloan and County Chairman Oscar Ledford is sitting beside him. Also shown are the two other county commissioners and members of the Highlands town board.

County commissioners and other local officials meet around a pot-bellied stove in the old courthouse in this photo from about 1970. That’s Dick Jones standing by the stovepipe, next to Sheriff George Moses. Press editor Bob Sloan is standing to the right of a poster for an Ox Roast Festival. County manager Ron Winecoff is in front of Sloan and County Chairman Oscar Ledford is sitting beside him. Also shown are the two other county commissioners and members of the Highlands town board.

Dick Jones: 60 years of fond legal memories

News Staff
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Barbara McRae bmcrae60@gmail.com Relaxed on his comfortable back porch last week, Dick Jones reminisced over the cases and characters he has known during nearly six decades as a Franklin lawyer.
File photo - Randy Hughes, who heads up Smoky Mountain Toys for Tots, expects higher demand and less donations this year.

File photo - Randy Hughes, who heads up Smoky Mountain Toys for Tots, expects higher demand and less donations this year.

Toys For Tots finds new home

Will Woolever
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
The Smoky Mountain Toys for Tots campaign has a new home. When Randy Hughes learned he had to move Toys for Tots’ headquarters out of Holly Springs Plaza earlier this year, the regional coordinator was left with a storeroom full of toys and no idea where he might be able to put them.
News

News

Absentee ballots pouring in

Lee Buchanan
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Absentee ballot requests continue to flood the county election office. About 4,000 Macon County voters have requested absentee ballots for the 2020 election, up from 956 for the entire 2016 election cycle.
Press photo/Jake Browning - Nine-year-old Ariana Velazquez is part of the PALS program with Franklin High School’s FFA and is raising a cow for this year’s livestock shows.

Press photo/Jake Browning - Nine-year-old Ariana Velazquez is part of the PALS program with Franklin High School’s FFA and is raising a cow for this year’s livestock shows.

No fair, but online livestock shows go on

Jake Browning
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Like so many events in 2020, the Macon County Fair won’t happen in its traditional format, but some aspects of it will go on in a digital space. This fall’s fair, scheduled for Sept. 23-26, would have been the 67th annual edition of an event. Because of the COVID pandemic, it was not to be.
Press photo/Will Woolever - Macon County Historical Museum curator Robert Shook explains the history behind Civil War artifacts in the museum’s collection. The museum will unveil a new exhibit – an original 19th century log cabin – next door to its building in November.

Press photo/Will Woolever - Macon County Historical Museum curator Robert Shook explains the history behind Civil War artifacts in the museum’s collection. The museum will unveil a new exhibit – an original 19th century log cabin – next door to its building in November.

Museum reopens with new exhibit

Will Woolever
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
The Macon County Historical Museum has opened its doors again and will soon be getting a new exhibit. Just a few weeks after receiving permission to reopen under the state’s Phase 2.5 social distancing guidelines, the museum is planning to unveil an artifact too large to fit inside its building.
News

News

Macon schools weigh options

Jake Browning
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Gov. Roy Cooper has given his blessing for students in kindergarten through fifth grade to return to full-time, in-person instruction. The decision on whether to return to full in-person instruction will be left up to individual school districts. At press time on Sept.
Press photos/Will Woolever - Laura Gamble revived a family tradition this year when she began canning vegetables from her home garden.

Press photos/Will Woolever - Laura Gamble revived a family tradition this year when she began canning vegetables from her home garden.

Preserving a tradition

Will Woolever
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
When the COVID-19 pandemic virtually shut down the nation’s economy and forced many Americans to shelter in place this spring, some worried how they might feed themselves and their families.
Press photo/Linda Mathias - Tom Pruett, school resource officer at East Franklin Elementary, watches as students board buses.

Press photo/Linda Mathias - Tom Pruett, school resource officer at East Franklin Elementary, watches as students board buses.

Closed schools return to Plan B

Jake Browning
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
The Macon County Board of Education have decided to return closed schools to the schedules put in place at the beginning of the school year.