2025 Top Stories: People, restaurants and accountability defined the year

This is the season for colorful decorations, family gatherings, and celebrations among friends and colleagues.

It’s also the season of year-end lists. Lots of them.

Most-streamed shows. Top songs. Box office champions. Most popular books. And, of course, the top news stories of the year.

Since 2023, our first year, The Paper has shared its own list of Top 10 stories told through our pages over the course of the previous 12 months. Some are hard-hitting and others bring a smile, but they all rose to be part of what defined 2025 for Burke County.

We also asked you, our readers, what stories you thought had the biggest impact on the year. The survey was emailed out to more than 2,000 people. Turns out, we are on the same wavelength.

The Paper staff and readers all came to the same conclusion: The People of Burke, told through profiles, business owners, nonprofit leaders, and reflections on those who passed, are the biggest, most important stories The Paper ran in 2025.

A strong community newspaper has a responsibility to keep a close eye on local government, on tax dollars, on courts, and on the decisions being made in rooms most folks never step into. But we have another responsibility that is just as important: to tell the stories of the people who live here.

Stories ranged from Caroline Duncan, a woman who hiked the Appalachian Trail, to Bruce Hawkins, who offered his story of the prejudice and discrimination he encountered as a Black boy growing up in Burke County and the work we still have to do to reach equality. We featured Timberwoods business owner Phil Scarboro, and how he uses food to connect with others. Our highest-read profile illuminated the life of barber and community icon Burl Sain, who died in February.

These people-driven stories will remain a top priority for 2026.

We were also on the same page (forgive me) about the No. 2 story. That rumbling you might hear is not the sonic boom of military jets buzzing Lake James or the Gorge. That sound is the collective grumbling of our stomachs. The No. 2 story, chosen by The Paper and readers, is anything associated with restaurants.

Eight of the 30 most-read stories (and we had more than 1,500 staff-written stories) all centered on restaurants. In fact, the story about Olive Garden’s announcement of a November opening was the third-most-read story. Period. Of all categories.

We are a hungry bunch.

Everyone was interested to know when Silver Creek Restaurant would finally reopen its doors after being devastated by Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters. The same was true for Town Tavern, which reopened in May after the Catawba River blew through its doors during the hurricane. Barbecue lovers drove the feature on Roundhouse Brisket into the Top 20.

Coverage related to Ingles Markets, including store operations and corporate decisions affecting the region, ranked third on both readers’ and The Paper’s lists.

To date, Ingles corporate officials have remained mum on what is happening. That vacuum of information has meant that residents are filling in the information void with rumors of new grocery stores coming to town (Publix? Harris Teeter? Lowes Foods?).

Yep, still no word from Ingles. All the while, Burke residents are becoming accustomed to shopping at Aldi, Food Lion, Walmart, or Food Matters. Some even drive to Hickory for Publix or Lowes, or to Marion for its Ingles store.

Still, 2025 also exposed some hard truths about accountability, and the legal system carried more than its share of weight.

The Bella Vino settlement finally closed a long, ugly chapter that divided public opinion and drained time and energy that could have been spent moving forward. The Subway franchise collapse showed how quickly a paycheck problem can become a housing crisis. The alleged charity fraud case reminded us that goodwill is a precious thing, and it can be exploited if no one is watching.

And the most painful legal stories involved crimes against children, cases that remind us that evil does not need a billboard. It can hide in plain sight. Those stories were brutal, but they were necessary. A community cannot protect its children by refusing to speak.

Education, too, was a year of strain and scrutiny. Declining enrollment and budget concerns created anxiety. A major new school project showed long-term investment. And a serious public conflict between the school board and the press raised bigger questions about transparency and accountability. When institutions clamp down during hard times, trust does not improve. It frays.

Finally, we spent a lot of ink on the economy because it is the foundation underneath everything else.

Burke County needs more and better-paying jobs. It needs new industries. It needs the kind of growth that lets families buy homes, fills schools, and strengthens our tax base. The Drexel industrial site, the shell building at Burke Business Park, the Industrial Commons campus, and the expansion at UNC Health Blue Ridge offer real reasons for optimism.

But the county’s recent Tier 1 economic designation is also a warning. Hope is not a strategy. Growth does not happen by accident.

If history is a barometer, many, if not all, of our Top 10 stories will continue to be emphasized in 2026. Readers overwhelmingly pointed to public education, Hurricane Helene recovery, and local government accountability as stories they believe belong among The Paper’s Top 10 for 2025 and should be priorities for coverage in the new year, according to open-ended responses in the survey.

You told us what is important. People profiles. Restaurants. Ingles. Legal accountability. Local politics. Education. Helene recovery. You want follow-through, not fly-by coverage. You want a paper that keeps asking the question until it gets answered.

That is exactly what we plan to keep doing.

Because 2025 reminded us of something Burke County has always known, deep down. We are not a place that quits. We are a place that rebuilds, argues, votes, remembers, and keeps moving forward.

We will carry that same stubborn strength into 2026.