Changing of the guard in Haywood: leaders who came and went in 2022

Jan. 2—In case you missed one or more issues of The Mountaineer in 2022, here are some of the Haywood County people in the news this year.

Long-time Haywood County Extension Director Bill Skelton retired at the first of the year after 20 years in the position. He was replaced in May by the first female extension director in the county's history, Haywood native Sally Dixon.

The change came after many years of change within the operations of the county extension service, and Dixon's vision is one that assures there will be plenty of good things coming to the county in the next decades.

Haywood Waterways Association, a nonprofit organization using a multi-faceted approach to keeping water in the county as clean as it can be, lost its director of 18 years, Eric Romaniszyn in February. Long-time environmental advocate Preston Jacobsen succeeded him.

Darren Nicholson, the mandolin player and vocalist for the internationally known bluegrass band, Balsam Range, performed for the last time with the band in December at the Art of Music Festival. Nicholson will branch on out his own as a singer and songwriter.

Long-time director of the Haywood County Tourism Authority, Lynn Collins, announced in June she would be retiring by the end of the year, but the date is now somtime in early 2023. Collins presided over the agency during a time of unprecedented growth and change, closing out 2022 with the highest level of tourism activity in the county's history.

This was a year of transition at Haywood County Schools as long-time superintendent Bill Nolte left the school system after 38 years of service after helping shepherd a meteoric rise in academic performance that consistently ranked Haywood schools among the top in the state. The Haywood County Board of Education tapped Trevor Putnum, another long-time educator/administrator within the system as his successor.

After serving Maggie Valley for nearly two decades, the last nine years as town manager, Haywood native Nathan Clark accepted a new position in Georgia. Clark's calm leadership smoothed over some of the ruffled waters in Maggie Valley, which has long been plagued by a divided leadership. His planning skills and forward-thinking set the town up for the possibility of growth depending on which path leaders choose.

Long-time town clerk, Vickie Best, was initially named interim manager, and in December, the position became permanent.

Meanwhile, the town of Waynesville saw the departure of its long-time recreation director Rhett Langston, who led the recreation department through the enormous rising popularity of town parks over the past decade — from the launch of a kids outdoor camps and after school programs to expansion of playgrounds and greenways. Langston has been succeeded by Luke Kinsland, who got his start at the rec department as a lifeguard at the age of 16.

On the arts and culture scene, Folkmoot saw another change in leadership, with new executive director Evan Hatch. The organization had been floundering since Covid shut down festivals and events in 2020, along with the departure of its executive director. Hatch barely arrived in time to pull off a summer cultural festival this year, with hopefully more of a full rebound to come.

And Haywood Arts Regional Theater also lost its extraordinary executive director Steve Lloyd, who grew HART over the past 30 years from a talented but small community theater troupe to a powerhouse of the performing arts — a two-theater campus with year-round productions on caliber with professional theater companies. Candice Dickinson is now at the helm. She came on board HART a couple of years ago as part of a planned succession to Lloyd.

The year 2022 was also one of political change in Haywood. At the beginning of the decade, Democrats ruled the political scene locally, much as the Republicans are firmly in control two decades later. Every contested race on the ballot led to a Republican win, even the one for tax collector where voters chose a 21-year-old college student who had never held a 40-hour-a- week job to oversee the collection of about $40 million in property taxes in the county.

Sebastian Cothran, a Haywood native, spent no money on campaign signs and did little campaigning except at the polls, yet defeated Greg West, who had nearly two decades of experience in the office, including presiding over a time when the collection rate was the highest ever.

The election led to the first-ever board of commissioners who were all Republicans, with lone Democrat on the board, Kirk Kirkpatrick, being defeated by Republican Terry Ramey.

The retirement of Democratic Sheriff Greg Christopher after a decade at the helm ushered in a new era as Republican Bill Wilke was elected.

Reporter Becky Johnson contributed to this story.