Think your honey-do list is long? Wait until you meet Jack Carlisle.

After five years of trying to merge with the town of Waynesville, the Lake Junaluska community has given up and charted a new course for its future.

Old Town Bank, a local start-up bank based Waynesville, is selling to Macon Bank, a regional bank headquartered in Franklin, for $13.5 million.

Leaders of Lake Junaluska and the town of Waynesville are weighing whether to try once again to push a merger bill through the General Assembly next year, or whether they are better off staying outside the political arena for a while.

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.

A bill paving the way for the merger of Lake Junaluska with the town of Waynesville was blocked at the 11th hour this week in the N.C. General Assembly.

The merger of Lake Junaluska with the town of Waynesville cleared a critical milestone in the N.C. General Assembly last week and finally seemed headed for passage, but was sidelined again at the 11th hour.

Elected government leaders in Haywood County have lined up behind a state bill to add Lake Junaluska to Waynesville’s town limits.

“Absolutely ridiculous.” Those are the words of Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, to describe the actions of Rep. Michelle Presnell, R-Burnsville, who has twice in two consecutive legislative sessions stopped in its tracks a bill that would merge Lake Junaluska with Waynesville.

Rep. Queen is being too kind by far. Asinine might better describe her opposition to this bill.

Lake Junaluska’s bid to merge with the town of Waynesville flickered to life in the state legislature last week after languishing in political purgatory for the past year.