SYLVA - Five months ago, the nation's leading producer of tax preparation software rather quietly opened a new call center 30 minutes and 20 miles away from its home office in Franklin.

The company expansion - which added 20 jobs - didn't garner much press. A four-paragraph item appeared on page 12 of the business section. And the development, at first glance, might not seem like a large feat.

But the economic evolution that led to Drake Software's expansion will soon change Western North Carolina from a frontier land of farmers and mill workers to a high-tech community in the center of a megalopolis that stretches from Atlanta to the industrial northeast, business experts believe.

"It is a great day in Western North Carolina when we can leverage technology that will enable economic growth and provide jobs in areas that were previously inaccessible," said Alan Keling, the software company's vice president of customer service, when the call center opened.

Signs of the growth are already here. As Atlanta creeps into north Georgia and north Georgia creeps into WNC, places like Franklin and Murphy are becoming new economic hotbeds. They are also becoming home to a population used to the diverse offerings of a city. Politics in north Georgia and far western North Carolina are already melding. Local leaders in both states recently joined together to fight plans to build a new interstate highway.

Driving growth
Drake's expansion did not happen overnight.

It is the fruit of a years-long project to bring WNC's communications infrastructure into the modern world.

Drake partnered with the region's other major economic player - the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians - and tapped the knowledge of Southwestern Community College to build a fiber-optic line 255-mile fiber-optic ring to bring high-speed Internet access to the six westernmost counties, northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee.

The $10 million project was expected to be completed in April.

When the fiber network plan was unveiled three years ago, WNC was on the verge of a manufacturing sector downturn that would see the loss of 4,600 jobs.

In the time since, things have been looking up. Some counties - such as Haywood - are reporting job growth and a move to a higher statewide economic tier.

And while the fiber network has created savings and business opportunities, the factor that is driving the fastest-growing and most profitable industry has little to do with the technology offered in the region now.

Home construction - second, third and sometime even fourth homes for the wealthy - continued to drive the economy in the west despite the first signs this year of a national construction downturn.

The things that are attracting the people buying and buildings these homes were here long before the fiber network: world-class hiking, biking, fishing, hunting and rivers.

The key to the west's economic future, business and political experts say, is blending construction, technology, manufacturing and tourism into a sustainable mix - one that does not destroy the mountains and does not stifle the economy.

"I am extremely excited about the opportunity that the fiber network project will afford the Eastern Band and Western North Carolina," said Principal Chief Michell Hicks of the Eastern Band on April 21. "This project will also provide a multitude of career and industry opportunities to the region. We are proud to be a part of it."

Tourist attraction
Tourism, and the services that are fueled by it, has also been a big story in recent years for the region.

One of the largest economic developments was the announcement that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians wants to build a second casino and one day offer Las Vegas-style games.

The tribe says the new games would create 430 new jobs with a $15.2 million payroll in the west. Negotiations over the deal ended without approval from Gov. Mike Easley in April. The tribe plans to try again.

A new casino will drive more growth for the tribe, which is now the largest employer west of Asheville with more than 1,800 workers.

The casino has become a top tourist attraction in North Carolina, right up there with the Biltmore Estate and the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.

And businesses are making long-term plans to tap into the growing tourism market west of Asheville and the second-homers it is likely to bring.

One example in recent months was the expansion announced in Swain County at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. The expansion will include a turntable, where engines are turned before departing, and a roundhouse, where engines and cars are stored.

The privately owned railroad company, which moved its headquarters to Bryson City in May from Dillsboro in Jackson County, hopes to start construction next year. The railroad employs 60 full-time and 120 seasonal workers. The company's expansion will add 20 jobs.

The expansion, like the tribe's plans for more gambling, will likely mean more dollars for local businesses.

"When you talk about what the train has done for Bryson City you are talking about the livelihood of employees and families of 12 to 15 businesses alone," said Bryson City businessman Gil Crouch, owner of Gil's Book Sale, in a recent interview.

A diverse future
The average price of a house in Haywood County jumped about 50 percent in the last two years, according to a new tax estimate.

The increase in value was so steep that county leaders - months before the year's budget was due - directed departments to work on a "revenue neutral" spending plans. The commissioners suggested that the tax rate of 61 cents per $100 of property value would drop to 49.7 cents to help lessen the blow to property owners.

Even with the tax cut, many property owners will be shocked at their new bills.
And the county can use the money. It owes millions on a new Justice Center and jail, health insurance costs are rocketing and the county's aging population is becoming more expensive.

The struggle between building more homes and paying for the costs the new people bring to the community and the environment is likely to play out across the western counties.
"I think our infrastructure is going to be stressed," said Paul Evans of the Institute for the Economy and the Future at Western Carolina University. "We are going to have to be very smart at how we grow the urban sectors. The most important thing that we can give our officials in government is sense of perspective of the future."

In a region that still has counties with double-digit poverty level estimates and virtually no zoning to speak of, gaining that perspective and planning could be more challenging than installing fiber optic line.

The downsides of intense mountain home developments are already staring to show.
A 65-year-old woman died in Maggie Valley in 2004 when a state road collapsed and sent tons of mud on her home in the Wild Acres subdivision. Crews in Waynesville this year are moving a home because the slope below it is eroding. Other than a proposed nonprofit to protect farmland, Haywood County has done little to curb growth.

Evans said diversity is the key to weathering economic factors - from the end of the home building surge to the loss of manufacturing jobs.

He said having a well-rounded regional "portfolio" is the best approach.

Medical, retirement and high-tech industries combined with tourism and second-home markets can create a powerful local economy, he said.

"The biggest challenge is to create the intellectual flypaper," he said.

Ben Brown, a co-founder of Macon Tomorrow, a group that advocates regional planning, said beyond attracting the best and brightest minds, WCU and other institutions need to focus on training local leaders and dissecting the local economy.

Brown said he sees 15 years of acceleration in the retiree migration to WNC. He said retirees and second-home owners bring money and human resources without costing the community and destroying the environment if growth is controlled.

"Towns and counties must be ready to first maximize the (retiree) investment and when the retiree boom ends, have the kind of infrastructure for whatever happens next - for the next economy," he said.

But, he said, governments need to be ready for that boom to end.

He said some success stories are showing up in the west. The Needmore Tract preservation, which brought together a collation of environmentalists and locals, is one example. Another is Waynesville's Land Use plan, which had strong community support and focuses on stopping sprawl.

Brown also said the emerging collation against the proposed Interstate 3 from Savannah to Knoxville is a good example of local leaders looking toward regional planning. And the outcry over selling parts of the national forest from almost all parts of the population is a sign the community places more value on the mountains and sees their economic worth.
"That is sea change," he said.

Fiber optic timeline
September 2003
BalsamWest FiberNet announces plans to build a 255-mile fiber-optic ring to bring high-speed Internet access to six counties in Western North Carolina and through northeastern Georgia and eastern Tennessee. Drake Enterprises in Franklin and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians provided the $10 million to build the network.

March, 2004
MCI deal drops costs
BalsamWest announces a deal with MCI to connect its fledgling fiber network with major Internet hubs in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. Prices for broadband drop almost 70 percent in some parts of the west.

July 2004
The fiber network reaches Andrews in Cherokee County.

July, 2005
WestCare, owner of Harris Regional and Swain County hospitals, taps into the fiber network for 25-times faster data transmission than its commercial T1 line. The service means sending a CAT scan image from Bryson City to Sylva in 12 seconds, reducing costs by 25 percent.

November, 2005
Drake Software used the fiber network to connect a Sylva call center with 20 workers to its home office in Franklin.