Before the town retreat that was held last Thursday I did a personal town assessment by again reading the Highlands Community Plan. The board of commissioners completed and adopted the plan in June of 2022. Some folks may think it was a […]
We have our monthly town board meeting tonight at 7 pm. This meeting will be at the Highlands Community Center next to the ball field. I anticipate the meeting being short with only a few […]
I recently chaired the Southwestern Regional Planning Commission’s Transportation Advisory Committee meeting. Let me review some of the transportation issues the committee discussed. First, NCDOT engineers stated they were working nonstop to repair and reopen I-40 next to the […]
I had the honor of speaking to the American Legion Post 370 on Saturday about the electric grid and future plans. I started my talk by paraphrasing the late Robert Palmer hit song that has the lyrics, “You might […]
Who knew, but here we are in the old-fashioned days of traditional Highlands. We thought they had gone away since the town had not had any measurable snow in the past three years. For some of our newly arrived […]
Tonight is Highlands Town Board of Commissioners’ January meeting. A board workshop will begin at 6 p.m., followed by the business meeting at 7 p.m. Both meetings are at the Highlands Community Building, next to the […]
I chaired the quarterly Transportation Advisory Committee of the Southwestern Regional Planning Organization last week at Southwestern Community College. We had several presenters, one of which was Wanda Payne, the NCDOT Division 14 Engineer. Payne gave us a regional […]
Thursday, Dec. 12, is the last town board meeting of the year. The board meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Highlands Community Building next to the ball field. You can remotely access the meeting via the portal on the town website. No workshop […]
A recent email from a resident was addressing the issue of workforce housing. Attached to the email was an article that called for a reduction in building code requirements and density standards as a strategy to increase housing supply. I […]
Part 1 As Mayor, I get recurring advice as to what the town should do, especially about operating our utilities. I respond to many of these ideas over and over again. But these ideas just […]
The town and residents are now entering an assessment period to Hurricane Helene response. What did we do well and what can we do better? I will focus this article on how each one of us should prepare for the next storm. Preparation for […]
I am thankful for many things, even amid the tragedy and disaster of Helene. Let me express my gratitude to this community. I will never be able to fully thank everyone for their support in the recovery after the storm. People didn’t respond to […]
This is my immediate journal and recollections as mayor during a storm and state of emergency. It begins last week. At the start of last week I and our staff became aware and started tracking the disturbance […]
The Highlands Town Board of Commissioners will meet on Thursday, Sept 19. At 6 p.m., there will be a board workshop followed by the official monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Both meetings will be at the […]