Bridge on I-40 to be named for Shawn Blanton
Col. Randy Glover, commander of the N.C. State Highway Patrol, will join state and local officials in a ceremony naming the bridge on Interstate 40 at Exit 31 in Haywood County as the Trooper Shawn Blanton Bridge in recognition of Blanton’s service to the state of North Carolina and the citizens of Haywood County.
The ceremony will be held on Thursday, June 17, 11 a.m., at the Colonial Theatre in Canton.
Blanton, a 2002 graduate of Smoky Mountain High School and the first member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to become a state trooper, was killed June 17, 2008, while conducting a traffic stop in Haywood County. He was SMHS’s JV softball coach at the time of his death.
For further information, call Sgt. Jeff Gordon at 919-733-5027.
