Update on Vagrant Blight in the Town Of Waynesville

[Forum Member]

Driving down South Main Street in West Waynesville yesterday, I passed a discarded mattress and an overturned shopping cart, on a location where some buildings stood until a couple of years ago when they were bulldozed. Whoever dumped these is not only an inconsiderate individual, they are also contributing to the area's growing blight that unfortunately shows no signs of turning around.


I am fully aware of the delayed plans to widen South Main Street by the state D.O.T. My question is, where is the political leadership at the municipal, county, and state levels on this? Who ( if anyone) is engaged in exerting pressure on D.O.T. officials to get some straight answers on plans, and preferably, actual action? Our state representative apparently has enough sway to secure funds for a rural highway walkway that nobody wants, yet South Main Street's issues remain unaddressed. All the while, residents both in West Waynesville, Hazelwood, and outlying unincorporated areas are growing impatient with the area's deterioration.

While much of these problems are due to governmental incompetence, private property owners along this stretch of road and adjacent area are not above bearing responsibility either. I understand that uncertainty over state plans has discouraged investment, but is it too much to ask to at least pick up the garbage on your property?The Ingles Corporation owns the lots where the mattress is, yet appears to do little to address this or other dumping. To the owners of the former REO's nightclub property- is it too much to make your property a no trespassing zone? Or is it better to have drug addicts and vagrants hanging around and urinating on your building walls?

A few years back, Waynesville's former mayor remarked on his town's charm, and how the idea was to make the town look like a Norman Rockwell painting. I'm not an expert on art history, but I certainly don't recall Rockwell painting any pictures of slum landscapes.

Erich Overhultz
Saunook