Local

Photos by Anngee Quinones-Belian/Staff Correspondent  Rob Jordan is happy to be back open after renovations to the Hot Spot in Ranger.

Photos by Anngee Quinones-Belian/Staff Correspondent  Rob Jordan is happy to be back open after renovations to the Hot Spot in Ranger.

Man’s legacy of customer service lives on

Body Ranger – A small country store opened in 1949 in Franklin and grew into 41 locations in North and South Carolina.
Photos by Randy Foster/editor@cherokeescout.com Firefighters from Valleytown Fire & Rescue stand by while waiting for Duke Energy workers to shut off power to a line taken down by a falling tree across Pisgah Road near Andrews on the afternoon of April 1.

Photos by Randy Foster/editor@cherokeescout.com Firefighters from Valleytown Fire & Rescue stand by while waiting for Duke Energy workers to shut off power to a line taken down by a falling tree across Pisgah Road near Andrews on the afternoon of April 1.

Quick Reads

Body Raining on food trucks
Randy Foster/editor@cherokeescout.com   Emergency responders assemble beside the burning wreckage of a Velocity airplane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Western Carolina Regional Airport on Saturday.

Randy Foster/editor@cherokeescout.com   Emergency responders assemble beside the burning wreckage of a Velocity airplane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Western Carolina Regional Airport on Saturday.

Veteran pilot dies in plane crash

Body The Velocity brand, single-engine kit airplane, described by a local pilot as the Corvette of experimental aircraft, took off from Western Carolina Regional Airport around 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Randy Foster/editor@cherokeescout.com   Police, sheriff’s deputies and K-9 units begin approaching a house on Fort Butler Street, where they responded to a report of someone holed up and armed Thursday.

Randy Foster/editor@cherokeescout.com   Police, sheriff’s deputies and K-9 units begin approaching a house on Fort Butler Street, where they responded to a report of someone holed up and armed Thursday.

No injuries in tense standoff

Body The street remained closed for about two hours.
John C Campbell Folk School

John C Campbell Folk School

New era at folk school

Body Brasstown– It started with signs proclaiming, “People not politics.” It ended with new leadership at the folk school.
hotos by Lisa DeLaurentiis/Contributing Photographer  Beulah is still wet after her fourth, and final, jump from a kayak into the New River last week

hotos by Lisa DeLaurentiis/Contributing Photographer  Beulah is still wet after her fourth, and final, jump from a kayak into the New River last week

Beulah living it up

Body Since Lisa DeLaurentiis adopted Beulah in late March, the elderly dog has been adjusting to her new life near Boone with DeLaurentiis, her husband, their five rescue dogs and a few cats.
Abigail Blythe Batton/Staff Correspondent Lillian Graham receives an honorable mention from Kathy Temple during the April 6 poetry reading at Tri-County Community College.

Abigail Blythe Batton/Staff Correspondent Lillian Graham receives an honorable mention from Kathy Temple during the April 6 poetry reading at Tri-County Community College.

Listening to the stones

Body “Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.” – Carl Sandburg
Anngee Quinones-Belian/Staff Correspondent  David Thomas presents Eddie Eller with a check from the community for Keith Ledford’s new roof, thanks to donations from the community and a gofundme.com fundraiser. 

Anngee Quinones-Belian/Staff Correspondent  David Thomas presents Eddie Eller with a check from the community for Keith Ledford’s new roof, thanks to donations from the community and a gofundme.com fundraiser. 

Community shows heart with a new roof

Body Murphy – When Sarah Thomas and her husband, David, realized a friend of five years was having trouble with leaks coming through the roof of his house, the couple knew they wanted t