Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper and NC Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser announced Thursday that 249 infrastructure projects in 80 communities across North Carolina would receive $462.9 million to aid in cleaner drinking water and strengthen wastewater and stormwater systems.
CHEROKEE — When Jackson County officials began to put together a plan to deal with development along U.S. 441 near Cherokee, they looked to an unusual source for ideas: School children from elementary grades through high school.
RALEIGH — Travis Lewis traces his family’s roots deeper into Jackson County, N.C., than most of the wildlife and plant life on the land that proposed “smart growth” ordinances seek to protect. But the way Lewis and thousands of other landowners see it, their heritage and livelihoods appear to be of secondary consideration to most officials and environmentalists pushing revolutionary changes in the county.
