Maggie receives grant for wastewater treatment repair

Former Sylva Police officer charged with misdemeanor assault

On Feb. 15, 2021, the Sylva Police Department became aware of an allegation of excessive force by then SPD Officer Patrick “Eli” Trantham involving an arrestee.

According to a Sylva Police Deparetment press release, upon learning about the accusation, Chief Chris Hatton called for two investigations into the alleged incident — an administrative investigation and a criminal investigation. The administrative — or internal — investigation was conducted by members of Sylva Police Department’s leadership. The goal of this investigation was to determine if any department policies were violated during this situation. The second investigation requested by Hatton was a criminal investigation. The goal of this investigation was to determine if any violations of criminal law occurred, which was looked into by the State Bureau of Investigation.

On Feb. 16, 2021, the Sylva Police Department continued to complete the appropriate investigative steps and gather facts about the situation. Chief Hatton met with Trantham. Trantham was suspended during the pre-disciplinary meeting. The administrative investigation was concluded on this date, and a final disciplinary meeting was scheduled with Trantham for the next day.

On Feb. 17, 2021, Trantham resigned his employment in the morning hours before the scheduled meeting. The release notes that the meeting would have resulted in the termination of Trantham’s employment with the Town of Sylva. Trantham began employment with the Town of Sylva on Oct.29, 2019, and had not been the subject of any previous complaints or investigations.

Chief Hatton issued the following statement:

“The leadership of the Sylva Police Department took this matter serious from the minute it came to light. We believe being held accountable should be a critical core value for all law enforcement agencies, including our own. The Sylva Police Department requested the external investigation by the NCSBI, and we fully cooperated with every step of this investigation. We acted with urgency to assure this incident was handled properly, without delay, and by the appropriate agency. Our community can trust their police department to do what is right when accusations such as this are made. My staff and I appreciate the hard work of both the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office and the NCSBI in this matter.”

Maggie Valley purchases land for Festival Grounds

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER

The Maggie Valley Festival Grounds are continuing to grow after the town purchased a tract of land connected to the grounds last week.

“The Board of Aldermen is always looking for opportunities to improve our strategic position at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds, and we were presented with an opportunity over the last couple of months,” said Town Manager Nathan Clark.

That opportunity came from Donald and Mary Jane Ferguson, who owned a 1.03acre parcel of land between the main entrance to the grounds and the Comfort Inn to the east. The parcel has frontage on Soco Road, and the back of the property borders the festival grounds. The town voted to approve purchase of the property for $430,000.

The lot is currently home to several single-story apartment buildings. No plans have been made regarding use for the property, and the board has not determined whether the building will remain or be demolished.

“The board will start planning and visioning for what this site will be in the future, but it will definitely add value to one of our largest commercial investments in the town which is the festival grounds,” said Clark.

The Maggie Valley Festival Grounds is scheduled to hold 23 events in 2022 from April through October. The events themselves are held by individuals or entities who lease the grounds from the town. This not only provides operating costs to the town, but also brings in visitors to a town where many businesses rely on tourism.

This is the second major investment the town has put into the festival grounds over the past two years, with another to come later this summer. In February of last year, the town purchased the 1.05-acre lot located directly across Soco Road from the entrance of the Festival Grounds for $185,000. The lot had been vacant for many years but was previously home to the Sweet Briar Motel. The plan was to turn this lot into a paved parking area for the festival grounds.

This year, the town will spend $250,000 to pave the lot and make it suitable for parking. The town also applied for grant money

Maggie Valley recently purchased a tract of land adjacent to

the Festival Grounds. HCTDA photo

from the Haywood County TDA special project fund to help with costs and was awarded $96,131. This is just over 75% of the town’s request and will go towards creating 90 new parking spaces for the Festival Grounds. The

Maggie receives grant for wastewater treatment repair

HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER

On Tuesday night, the Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen accepted a grant from North Carolina Emergency Management to repair the levee of its wastewater treatment plant.

The town’s grant from the Emergency Management Disaster Relief and Mitigation Fund has been approved and fully funded for approximately $360,000. Maggie Valley will have to spend the money on the project from its general fund before grant funding from emergency management can reimburse the town.

Like most wastewater treatment facilities, Maggie Valley’s plant is located within the 100-year floodplain, or the special flood hazard area. It is located adjacent to Jonathan Creek, just before it converges with the Pigeon River. In order to protect from flooding, wastewater treatment plants are insulated from water sources by levees.

Before Maggie’s last wastewater treatment plant expansion in 2009, one of the plant’s levees dated back to 1984. When new flood maps were adopted in 2012, that levee was not considered compliant and therefore not shown on updated maps.

“It was scrubbed out because of the type of construction process that was used,” said Town Manager Nathan Clark. “So at that point the town had to make a critical decision, whether we just let the levy exist the way it is, or do we actually go and try to get this levy certified. In doing so we would remove our wastewater treatment plant from the special flood hazard area by 100%.”

Following staff recommendation at that time, the board decided to go ahead and make the investment, work with the state flood mapping agency and engineers to get the levee certified and up to date in order to provide full protection to the wastewater treatment plant.

Since 2012, the amount of critical rainfall in Haywood County has eroded the toe of the levee, in an area that was outside the scope of work done in 2012.

“It’s eroded into an area that we’re growing concerned about and want to stabilize before it threatens the levee as a whole,” said Clark.

The project is expected to take around six months, during which time there will be no disruption to town services. The levee that will be under repair is outside the confines of the plant and construction can be complete without interfering in its operations.

The Maggie Valley wastewater treatment plant is a million-gallon-per-day facility serving Maggie Valley and the Jonathan Valley area. The Town services about 2,000 separate sewer customers with a combined customer population of approximately 4,600. In 2020, the facility treated an average daily flow of 407,000 gallons per day.

Once the grant funding is approved by the board and sent back to Raleigh, the scope of work and services will come before the board, likely next month, to get the levee repair project started.