To the Editor:

After attending the meeting on Tuesday evening at the Waynesville Town Hall, one of the speeches that stuck with me the most wasn’t one I would have expected — it was the dad who said he was afraid for his daughters, and that while he felt for people who believed they were stuck in the wrong bodies, he shouldn’t have to worry every time they went into a bathroom.

The Town of Waynesville is looking for members to serve on its new Environmental Sustainability Board.

Claims of indecent behavior involving a transgender person at the Waynesville Recreation Center roiled this tight-knight rural community last week, even after a town investigation found no evidence that any crimes were committed and that one of the allegations was completely unsubstantiated.

But if those allegations were meant to divide, deride or dishearten the people of Haywood County, they’ve proven to be a spectacular failure after a recent meeting of the Waynesville Town Council that will be remembered as a watershed moment for LGBTQ+ rights in a small Appalachian town nestled right in the heart of MAGA country.

The world has felt heavy lately… more than usual. I’ve felt pretty helpless. Thinking to myself, “What’s the use?” It takes so much energy to deflect all the hate and negativity happening around us, it’s easy to feel apathetic and give up. 

Waynesville native, retired DEA agent and unsuccessful 2019 Waynesville aldermanic candidate Joey Reece will run for mayor of Waynesville, Reece told The Smoky Mountain News on the afternoon of July 17.

On a recent mid-May morning, Kevin Sandefur spent five hours spreading gravel in the parking lot of the brand new BearWaters Brewing location on South Main Street in Waynesville. 

The candidate filing period for November’s municipal elections that opened on July 7 ends this coming Friday, July 21, at noon, and although things are starting to solidify in some races, there have been and may continue to be some surprises. 

Waynesville’s consideration of a social district in its downtown core took an interesting turn on June 27, when members of the Town Council voted 4-1 to halt discussion of the issue — in effect, killing it. 

Waynesville’s USA Farm Labor is suing the federal government in hopes of changing a new rule it claims will cost the company hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of dollars per year. 

Open container alcohol consumption in cities and towns across North Carolina has met with positive results, according to local administrators and police officers — which is why opponents of Waynesville’s proposed “social district” are resorting to misinformation and sensationalism to impose their minority viewpoint on the majority of downtown stakeholders who overwhelmingly support such a district.