The town of Waynesville has a large checklist to tackle in the coming months before Lake Junaluska is officially added to the town limits.

If the litmus test of a community’s health is how strong its art scene is, then, by the looks of it, Waynesville is in tip-top shape.

Hundreds will take to the streets of downtown this Friday evening for the first Art After Dark of the year. For some serious art purveyors, it’s a time to study and muse over the latest works to emerge on gallery walls. For artists, its time to compare notes about the creative process.

Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center has unveiled a $40 million, 10-year campus master plan in hopes of bolstering convention business and attracting a new breed of resort tourist.

It’s Monday morning, and Mary Lou Rinehart is taking a moment to relax.

Owner of Clyde Ray’s Flower Shop in Waynesville, Rinehart spent most of the weekend putting the final touches on innumerable corsages and arrangements for the two high school proms that were on back-to-back nights.

The town of Waynesville has hired a consultant to help create mandatory design standards for buildings in historic districts.

A state bill that would bring Lake Junaluska into Waynesville’s town limits has cleared the N.C. Senate and is now headed for passage in the N.C. House of Representatives.

The Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center and the 760-home residential community surrounding it would then be absorbed into Waynesville’s town limits by late summer.

When Doug Weaver looks around Haywood County, he sees potential. 

“We’re on the fence, right in the middle of where it’s almost a scene,” he said.

Head chef and co-owner at The Sweet Onion in Waynesville, Weaver is at the forefront of a pioneering movement within the county and greater Western North Carolina to make his backyard a culinary destination.

Talk of cutting the historic courthouse maples in Waynesville has come and gone during the years.

Reasons varied. It was hard to get grass to grow underneath. The trees masked the grandness of the historic courthouse. Heavy equipment parked under the trees during courthouse renovations damaged the root systems.

Main Street merchants are used to answering tourists’ questions: how do you get to the parkway, what’s the best place for dinner, and where are the public restrooms? But lately, Waynesville’s downtown store keepers have also become purveyors of news.

Dog park patrons have issued a collective howl over recent changes to the fenced in canine play yard along Waynesville’s Richland Creek recreation complex.