Editor’s note

As Tony Dillard notes in this guest column, we’ve printed two other opinion pieces over the last two weeks by Waynesville aldermen Chuck Dickson and Jon Feichter regarding this annexation and the issue of whether these housing developments fit into the character of Waynesville. It’s unusual for The Smoky Mountain News to then give this much space to a third opinion piece, but given the importance of this issue — how will we grow — we decided to give Mr. Dillard the opportunity to voice his concerns. To note, Dillard is a private citizen in Waynesville.

— Scott McLeod, SMN Editor 

A stretch of land along Ratcliff Cove Road — quiet, rural, long-defined by fields, creek-bottoms and generational ties — became the focal point of a larger question April 14, as Waynesville Town Council took up an annexation request that would determine not just what gets built there, but how the town chooses to grow. 

At a Feb. 27 budget retreat, Waynesville aldermen confronted a familiar tension — how to keep municipal salaries competitive in a tightening labor market while staring down mounting infrastructure demands and lingering financial uncertainty tied to Hurricane Helene. 

Two presentations from Human Resources Director Page McCurry outlined the first steps in an overhaul of pay classifications, beginning with public works positions and moving next to police and fire. 

Two members of Waynesville’s Zoning Board of Adjustment were improperly appointed by Town Council in violation of the town’s own term limits policy, a Smoky Mountain News investigation has found. 

They ran a noisy campaign, filled with distortions, misinformation and outright fabrication, but in the end, that’s all it was — noise.