The volunteer kickoff effort at the Haywood Pathways Center on Sept. 25, 2014, was a glorious day in Haywood County. It is estimated more than 1,000 volunteers were on hand at the former Hazelwood prison site to remove fencing, paint dormitories, build a laundry/restroom facility and landscape the premises. All

The Open Door Ministry in Waynesville was almost unrecognizable Thursday morning as it overflowed with hungry Haywood County residents having breakfast with television star Ty Pennington. Pennington made a visit to Waynesville after Haywood County’s vision project, the Haywood Pathways Center, won first place in the Guaranteed Rate Ultimate Neighborhood

Hundreds of volunteers showed up Thursday to take part in a community-wide effort to tear down the fences of the old Hazelwood prison. After renovations are complete, the prison will become transitional housing and a community kitchen. Ty Pennington, spokesperson for Guaranteed Rate’s Ultimate Neighborhood Give Back Challenge, was on

The rain stayed away Thursday morning as volunteers gathered to begin the process of flipping the old Hazelwood prison and turning into an invaluable community resource. “We’re going to tear down the fences, and we’re going to create a project and a place where we do not imprison but we

The regional, if not the national, spotlight will be on Haywood County Thursday as the Haywood Pathways Center will be a focal point for many. The project to turn a former prison into a halfway house, soup kitchen and emergency shelter mushroomed after entering the Guaranteed Rate Ultimate Neighborhood Giveback

A group from various churches across the county congregated at the former Hazelwood Prison Wednesday to pray for the project’s success. A team from the Guaranteed Rate marketing team arrived Wednesday morning to check on last minute details for the kick-off event at the future Haywood Pathways Center. The effort

September 24-30, 2014 Smoky Mountain News news 6 BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER It’s going to be an eventful next few days in Waynesville. Haywood Pathways Center is in the final stretch of planning a three-day blitz on the old Hazelwood prison, transforming the former state detention center into a combined soup kitchen, halfway

At T-minus three days until the scheduled opening day for Haywood Pathways Center, Nick Honerkamp still wasn’t sure how to answer the big question: will the shelter open? “That is the question of the week,” said Honerkamp, one of the leaders of the effort, Wednesday (Nov. 12) morning. A trip down to the Pathways campus in Hazelwood, which used

[html tag_image_style=”imagestyles-3″]Sold! How the old state prison was unloaded for just $1 At first blush, the shuttered state prison in Waynesville looks more like a military barracks or summer camp bunkhouse than a prison — except perhaps for the concertina wire around the perimeter and guardhouse at the entrance. But for decades, the tiny, minimum security prison went largely unnoticed, tucked down