Waynesville leaders have granted a free pass on many of its aesthetic development standards to pave the way for a large warehouse facility being built by Giles Chemical, the Waynesville-based company that is the largest North American manufacturer of Epsom salts.

It’s all hands on deck this weekend as Waynesville prepares to welcome more than 1,100 cyclists and their families to town for the start of the Cycle N.C. Mountains to Coast Ride. 

Waynesville was fortunate enough to be selected as the starting point for the weeklong, 500-mile bicycle ride across the state, and town and tourism development officials have been prepping for months to make sure the event goes off without a hitch.

SEE ALSO: Haywood wants a share of cycling tourists

Since the first wheels starting turning in 2010’s inaugural Blue Ridge Breakaway bike ride, cycling has been picking up speed in Haywood County. And as more cyclists have flocked to the annual cruise of Haywood’s scenic byways, the county’s reputation as a cycling destination for the remaining 364 days of the year has grown as well. There might not be a lot of hard data on that yet, but the anecdotes flow freely.

Hazy ownership of a de facto three-acre park in Waynesville has been resolved, allowing the town to remove a group of partiers who had more or less occupied a corner of the property as squatters.

Duke Energy has roped Waynesville in for another year even though the town hoped to quit buying its wholesale power from the energy giant by year’s end.

Any day now. 

That’s what Robbie Inman has been telling himself for weeks as he cruises Raleigh news sites, trying to cipher out when an end to the budget logjam in the General Assembly would end.

Waynesville candidates running for the town board and mayor got an audience with the business community last week at the monthly Issues and Eggs breakfast hosted by the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce.

I’ve never been a huge fan of any sport that hinges on an ability to run swiftly or handle a ball with any measure of skill, and for that reason I’ve managed to maintain a remarkably clean life record when it to athletic accomplishments. 

Mud is another matter.

There are few places in Waynesville folks are afraid to go after dark. But the sagging blue canopy slung beneath the trees at the far end of Chestnut Park is one of them.

A grandiose plan to remake Waynesville’s Russ Avenue commercial corridor into a tree-lined boulevard has gotten a little less grandiose.