Candidates meet for Nantahala forum

Local and state candidates gathered at the Nantahala Community Club on Aug. 3 for the first candidate forum of the 2026 general election cycle. Community members filled the room to capacity, while six candidates for two county commissioner seats and four candidates for state seats took seats at a table at the front of the room. Candidates for the two District 2 seats on the Macon County Board of Commissioners are Terry Bell (D), Kellie Burns (R), Dylan Castle (R) and Janet Greene (D). Incumbent commissioner John Shearl and challenger Russ Lunn attended, seeking the District 1 seat. Incumbent N.C. Senator Kevin Corbin (R) attended alongside Tom Downing (D) running for District 50. Incumbent N.C. House District 120 Representative Karl Gillespie (R) attended alongside challenger Caleb Brown (D). Melissa Schreiber of the Nantahala Community Development Club introduced the forum, saying she wanted it to be a place for candidates to bridge an increasingly partisan divide. "We are living in a time of deep political division, where disagreement too often becomes personal. Many people are wary of the anger, the suspicion and the tendency to see those who are different from us as adversaries," she said. "Local communities have the opportunity, and I would say the responsibility, to do better." Schreiber encouraged candidates and guests to give candidates the benefit of the doubt and assume good intentions. County growth Following the candidates' introductions, the first half of the forum saw submitted questions directed toward three or four candidates. The first question was asked of Greene, Shearl and Castle. "Given that Macon County is experiencing steady growth at about 1% per year since 2020, what are the most important steps in terms of things like infrastructure, fiscal responsibility, housing, conservation and economic development?" Greene said, "One of our major needs for going forward in the next four years is housing, affordable housing, in Macon County. I know that there are of course workforce housing grants out there, and now with the new housing bill that was passed by Congress there are some other grants." Greene said the county should apply for these grants to give contractors help with infrastructure costs. She also said she believes the county should contract an economic development director to help attract small businesses, but she doesn't see big plants coming to Macon County. "We need to find those businesses that are needed here in Macon County, and I also am committed to preserving the beauty of our county. You know, we have this beautiful place and so many people come here because it is beautiful, because they love our forests," Greene said. Shearl said the Economic Development Commission has been idle for the last year and a half but has recently been working to find a new director. He said the only thing the county could offer developers is incentives on building permits, rather than helping with infrastructure, which the county does not control. "Yes, we are in desperate need of places for folks to live, but it's going to take a private investor to do so," he said. "Highlands hospital came up with a plan to build affordable housing on land that they own and it was going to cost them $21 million and they backed away from it. So our land values and cost here is extreme, so it'll take a special kind of investor to do this." Castle said he was opposed to the government getting involved in housing, adding, "I want to see the private industry thrive, and so what I would prefer to see is discussion on … how can we make it easier for a lot of these builders to be able to do what they need to do?" Castle said the county could look at grant opportunities or examine ordinances and restrictions to make it easier for developers. "Sometimes the government does need to jump on something because they have the power to do it and then turn it over to the private sector, and I would love to see what areas of Macon County we can attribute that to," he said. Public education To Brown and Gillespie, "What changes would you support to improve public education in rural counties like Macon?" Brown, a teacher with Macon County Schools, said, "I want to talk about some of the numbers. Our state, since 2014, has spent $1.6 billion on private school vouchers. That is your public tax dollars going to support private institutions rather than our pubic schools. That is unacceptable … Macon County alone spent $840,000 on private school vouchers. Right now Macon County is operating with a $2.4 million deficit in their budget. That $840,000 that was spent on private school vouchers could certainly make a dent in that budget deficit." Brown added he wants to see "career and technical education programs established in every school across the state" and would "focus on expanding pre-K, not only in Macon County but across the state." "I would like to see pre-K either provided universally across the state of North Carolina or I would like to see at least reduced cost. That would provide an economic boon and a social boon," Brown said. Gillespie said, "We need to continue expanding the small school funding, low wealth funding. We need to continue working with our federal partners to restore the funding that has been cut at the federal level. We've got to expand, and I think this is a key component, specialized career development in our trade program. The trade programs is what our shortfall is across every industry." Gillespie said the state should ensure children have a healthy diet to improve performance and, while his family is a product of the public education system, "there's other choices out there and we need those other choices because we need to give every kid a chance to learn in their own environment." Budget priorities To Lunn, Bell and Burns, "What are your top three budget priorities and where would you reduce spending with revenue's decline?" Lunn said his top three priorities are public safety, schools and seniors. "At this point, 30% of the people here are seniors … I think they need a little bit more help with getting meals on wheels, things like that. And when it comes to producing revenue in the budget, I believe community input is fairly important," he said. Lunn said pointed out increases in the county's debt service from $4.5 million to 9.55 million from 2025-26 to 2026-27 fiscal years, and said he believes the county could have done better for public schools than leaving them with their $2.5 million shortfall. "Public safety, Sheriff's Department, EMS, fire departments: these services are critical, right? They affect all of the community. I'll do my very best to always fully support these things." Public education is Bell's number one priority. "We have to do our very best to provide good public education for our children," he said. "My family doctor in Franklin, I remember the day he started kindergarten, I was his principal," he said. "It's important we put education up there because they will be taking care of us if not already." He said second on his list was public safety, having spent 29 years with the Otto Volunteer Fire Department, and third was health and human services. "One part of that that often gets looked over is mental health, and so we need to put some emphasis on mental health care in Macon County," Bell said. Burns said, "My first one is infrastructure. I feel like our courthouse, our jails, our schools, they're dilapidated, they're deteriorating. We're sitting on a fund balance and we're not taking care of our buildings. You can't have any of these services they're talking about without taking care of the buildings that house those services, and I don't really understand why they're not being taken care of." Burns said inflation is rising faster than any of the interest being generated off the fund balance. "My second one is public safety," she said. "One area of public safety that I think we often miss is our 911 dispatchers. They plan an important role. So I think we need to take care of them, our EMS workers, our firefighters and our law enforcement," by providing them with necessary compensation and equipment. Burns said her third priority was applying for grant funding to bring in resources to take care of other priorities. Carry permits To Corbin and Downing, "Senate Bill 50 eliminates the permit requirement for many otherwise-eligible adults to carry a concealed handgun. Should North Carolina continue requiring permits and training, or should it move to permitless carry?" Corbin said he was in favor of the bill, having voted for it twice: both for its initial passing and to override Governor Josh Stein's initial veto of the bill. "I've not heard yet of a criminal that wanted to make sure they went and got their concealed carry permit before they committed crimes, and so that's not a deterrent to crime, having concealed carry," he said. Downing said, "The bill also changes the rules so an 18-year-old can just go and buy a [sic] conceal carry weapon and carry it around. If you know any 18-year-olds, they're great. They have lots of good thoughts in their head and they follow through and they're really honest and caring and they love their community — some of them, most of them. But I think it's a bad idea." He added many gun owners who intend to carry their weapons across state lines will need to keep up with the same permitting requirements. "Everybody that I know who's taken the training, who's talked to me about it said it's great training," Downing said. "I just think we've got to err on the side of caution. If it's not broke, let's not fix it." Committees and the library To Greene, Shearl and Castle, "What criteria and process should county commissioners use to select qualified candidates to serve on advisory boards? It will be up to the newly elected county commissioners to determine whether or not to go through with leaving the Fontana Regional Library system. What do you intend to do and why?" Greene said there is an existing process for applying to an serving on the board, and she believes commissioners should examine candidates of different backgrounds and opinions to their own. She added the candidates should "bring something to the committee that they serve on to help and enhance the board for what they serve for, building up the county government position that they would be holding." "I am a supporter of the Fontana Regional Library," she continued. "I am sad that Jackson County has pulled out, but given that that is the fact, then we will have to ask some hard questions about what it will look like going forward and what the cost will be." She said commissioners must examine years down the line to determine if the county can continue to provide the same services to users at the same level as the county can through the FRL. "I want to support our libraries and make sure they have what they need," she said. Castle noted he once applied to the FRL board and would like to see a distinct application for each board rather than a single, standardized application. He said more transparency from the Board of Commissioners about board appointments may resolve "tension" with some board appointments. "As a commissioner, I would take the personal responsibility to interview these people. It may be a short phone call," Castle said. "It's a huge undertaking, it's a lot of time put in, but I think it's part of that obligation that if you're going to sit on that board and you're going to approve somebody, you should have an in-depth conversation, not just a piece of paper and a name, whether I know you or not." "The library itself, I think the financial component is huge. If we can pay the same amount of money and get equal or better services, it seems like a no-brainer and I'm really looking forward to the information they get. I'm also curious, could those employees actually have a better job experience and better compensation package through the county rather than what they were already receiving?" Castle said he was homeschooled, so he understands why access to public libraries are essential. Shearl said many advisory boards have been reduced in size under current commissioners to make them more effective and able to more consistently meet. "We interview as an individual, some of these people, we'll contact, talk to them, see where they stand if we don't know them. Most of these people we already know and we know where they stand and what their goals are that align with our goals as the county commissioners," he said. Shearl added he believes Macon County will be able to operate county libraries better than the FRL. Healthcare access To Brown and Gillespie, "Recent state and federal scrutiny has focused on patient safety, staffing and whether Mission Hospital has met commitments made when it was acquired by HCA … What specific actions would you take to improve access to quality healthcare in our region?" Brown said his family traveled to Mission to have children and his wife traveled to Brevard to access OBGYN. "These are services that I would like to see provided here in Macon County. The things that they identified, the jeopardy issues that they identified, was patient misidentification, patient deaths and improper management of infection." "I want to see legislation that introduces ideas where we can provide financial incentives and student loan forgiveness to physicians who will agree to come and serve our rural communities for a period of 10 years. We need to provide incentives to get doctors for primary care and preventative care to come into Macon County, Clay, Graham and Cherokee," Brown said. He added patients from Graham County have shared stories of needing to travel to Tennessee or out of district to access care, and called it "unacceptable." Gillespie said, "I've been very outspoken against HCA … the sale should have never happened to begin with. Number one, the North Carolina Attorney General could have stopped that sale, he didn't. And the current folks that have the latitude to do something are not doing anything, so I don't think, I don't know, that there is a legislative fix for HCA." He attributed the issues to HCA's "mentality," and said, "one of the benefits that we have, being in the far western part of North Carolina, is we border Tennessee and we border Georgia, and we also border South Carolina, so we do have opportunities to go outside to get quality healthcare. It's unfortunate that we do that, but that's the only choice we have and I think that's what we're faced with." County redistricting To Lunn, Bell and Burns, "If the proposed redistricting goes forward, what principles should guide the drawing of new commissioner districts?" Lunn said voters should have a say on the new district proposal, and he would prefer five commissioners from five county districts. Bell said redistricting would be "a very, very hard chore" for the next board. He said existing communities need to be respected during the process, but said he was still unsure of what the big issue was about the current system, which has been used for the past 50 years. "I view my role as a county commissioner as representing all the people in Macon County, not just the people who live in Otto or Smithbridge," Bell said. Burns said she believes no community should be marginalized, and no other county in N.C. uses the current Macon County commissioner structure. She said, "There may be a need for a change," but "we don't want to rush into it and just do something off the cuff." Burns said the county needs to speak to and listen to the community members in Highlands, Nantahala and other neighborhoods to get feedback before going ahead with its decision. Mental health care To Corbin and Downing, "How would you address shortages on mental health and substance abuse treatment services?" Corbin said, "This past budget … we put $850 million into mental healthcare." He said these funds would cover adding beds to mental hospitals to ease strain on emergency rooms. Downing said mental health patients need follow-up care and often run out of coverage. He said a way to deal with this issue is to enforce mental health parity coverage, which requires insurers to cover mental health conditions. "We can enforce that and don't let insurance companies get away with saying 'oh no, we're not going to cover you,'" he said. He added there is a need to attract mental health service providers into rural communities in the same way that the state brought dentists in. "What issue facing Macon County do you believe receives too little attention?" (Each candidate had the opportunity to answer this question.) Lunn said the senior center has been having issues, not having enough space to host seniors for lunch or get emergency vehicles into its parking lot. Shearl said, "We have got to have help for our young people to get them off these drugs … second thing that I think of is the garbage that's all over our streets and our communities, and the third thing is our roadsides need to be mowed, trimmed and everything else, but these are minor details to compare to the drug pandemic that's affecting all of our families." Brown said, "We need pre-K. We have classrooms that are built in Highlands and the pre-K is not happening, so we need pre-K. That will create an economic boon and a social boon, the parents are free to go to work and they know that their kids are getting a quality education and a head start … the other side of that is our senior citizens. When I look at the demographic data, Macon County is around 30% people over 65 years old. We need to take care of our senior citizens." Gillespie picked senior services, saying, "Assisted living facilities, skill care, rest home, memory care, all those things are so important when you look at the demographics and those demographics are not going to change." Downing said, "Climate change is going to affect and has affected everything in our lives. And how we deal with it now will depend on what we do in 15 or 20 or 30 years." Corbin said pre-K as well, adding, "We just put a bunch of money into Propel NC, that was one of my big priorities that is made to bolster our community college system." Corbin also said adding affordable housing is vital to solving other problems like recruiting doctors. Greene said affordable housing is essential. "We can't house our teachers, our nurses, our healthcare workers. We can't do that if we don't have affordable housing." Castle said communications was important, because many residents aren't aware of the services already provided by the county. "There's obviously a breakdown somewhere between what we are offering, what your tax money already does for you, and you're not utilizing but you're paying taxes on it." Bell chose housing. "There are a lot of people living in substandard housing. I was at the fire department today … they were telling me horrible stories about places they had to go and render service to citizens within my own home community that we don't see every day. And so I think that is something that we need to pay more attention to." Burns chose employment. "What we need to do is get creative and work with our high school, work with SCC, Western Carolina University. We need to work and find those jobs out there and train our high school students and our college students to do those jobs."

Candidates meet for Nantahala forum

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