The first draft of the Town of Waynesville’s proposed 2017-18 fiscal year budget was presented to the public on May 23, but citizens still have a few opportunities left to weigh in on it before adoption.

A 56,000-square-foot, $20 million retail project that will bring a long-awaited Publix grocery store to Waynesville was unanimously approved by the town planning board May 15, but still has one more hurdle to face.

Waynesville Mayor Gavin Brown opened the town’s February budget retreat — his 17th or 18th, by his own reckoning — by setting the direction with a poignant quote.

More than a century ago, the state of African-American education in the antebellum South was so utterly deplorable that it took the combined forces of a civil rights pioneer and a department store magnate to make lasting improvements that continue to reverberate across the region, including in Western North Carolina.

Things are happening in Waynesville’s historic African American community along the Pigeon Street corridor; the town is pursuing a grant to identify historic structures, has demolished a problematic former church and is planning a park of some sort for the site.

The Town of Waynesville has selected an artist and an art piece for its latest public art installation.

Thanks to Kiwanis International and Landscape Structures Inc., one lucky community will walk away with $25,000 in free playground equipment this summer.

With nearly two years of prep work already under their belts, developers have cleared the first major hurdle for bringing a $20 million, 56,000-square-foot retail project that will include a Publix to Waynesville.

Although speculation has been rife over the past year, plans for a Publix grocery store in Waynesville have finally been revealed in advance of an upcoming zoning hearing.

As summer approaches, Waynesville’s green spaces are getting greener, but they’re also getting greater — in size.