Concerned Citizens Buttered Biscuit Meeting January 19,2023

[Forum Member]

The Concerned Citizens Buttered Biscuit meetings started back last night and the crowd was involved and ready for action! They are a conservative community action group interested in what is happening in Haywood County. They meet at 5:30 on Thursday's at the Buttered Biscuit. No admission is required and all citizens interested in protecting Haywood County from turning into Asheville and stopping the WOKE agenda is invited." Bring your common sense" is what one citizen stated in the meeting.

Alderman Julia Freeman was the first speaker and took questions soon after introducing herself. With the tough past three years the Town of Waynesville has gone through, with dissatisfied citizens speaking at every Aldermen meeting against approvals of uncontrolled housing, condo's and apartment buildings being forced on us and implementing smartgrowthamerica.org, the "great real estate reset during COVID, the town planner misleading the Planning Board and Aldermen into switching from a Quasi Judical process of approval to an Administrative "rubber stamp" on large development projects, hiring a homeless task force director for $60,000 to oversee a homeless task force trying to force low barrier homeless shelters supplied with crack kits and needles called Harm Reduction everywhere like restaurants in our town,with a plan to add a full time employee to oversee 29 unhoused homeless people, a moratorium on construction from a failed sewer system that has been in the works since 2005, with the cost of replacement increasing every meeting, which will reflect on everyone's bill when the sewer system is finally replaced, an increase in crime, transient vagrants and discarded needles everywhere, spending money to fund the Helping Hands non-profit to build low barrier shelters in Maggie Valley and continuing to fund them, ignoring the public outcry to stop, and talking about allowing public drinking on the streets of Waynesville, Julia Freeman had some tough questions to answer.

Julia Freeman stated she did plan to run for Alderman again this year and, if she is elected, she wanted to assure the citizens "the growth will be stopped or we won't have a town", "there will be no low barrier shelters, ever, in the Town of Waynesville" and "we will give no funding to Helping Hands", with applause from the crowd at every announcement. She also wants to reinstate the Quasi Judicial process so citizens will again have a voice and be involved in large development project decisions and she's concerned with the discarded needles and crime. She stated we have a designated police officer now at Walmart because of the increase in crime. Walmart in Asheville is discussing closing it's doors because of all the crime and theft at their store.

Julia stated her platform will be to improve infrastructure and roads and to protect the Town of Waynesville employee's, paying them a good wage. The sewer system replacement is supposed to start in the spring and the new fire station is still in the works. When asked about the homeless camp clean-up next to the Waynesville Middle School, where 60 discarded needles and tons of trash were removed, she had heard about it but didn't know details. When asked about the Town of Waynesville suing the Hall's and Sherri Rogers, Haywood County Register of Deeds, over legally obtaining ownership of an unused right of way, she was unaware. Julia has a record of voting for all of these issues citizens have been fighting against, so everyone is hopeful she will show us in Aldermen meetings this year, she intends to change her governing style. The Town of Waynesville Aldermen elections are non-partisan.

Scott Cason, a developer who has been involved in helping to improve the current Smart Growth plan the town has implemented, to save and protect our old established neighborhoods, spoke last night at the Buttered Biscuit meeting. He brought forth a plan some smart growth cities are using, to save their historic downtown area, and desiginate an area for shopping centers and restaurants and another area for housing, that will not interfere with existing neighborhoods and our downtown areas. The current plan calls for infill in our old established neighborhoods with an increase in density, which is an increase in the number of houses allowed on an acre of land.

At the end of the Buttered Biscuit meeting,County Commissioner Terry Ramey spoke to the Concerned Citizens, explaining he is in full compliance with his taxes and has a payment plan where he is paying interest. His balance, if it was paid off today, is $2,122.84. By law, he is not required to pay it off, since he set up a payment plan back in September after an LLC dispute was settled. The article in the Smoky Mountain News slandering Commissioner Terry Ramey should never have been written and the other four county commissioners could have saved themselves a lot of embarrassment if they had first checked with the tax office, before answering misleading questions by Cory Villaincourt at Smoky Mountain News. Commissioner Ramey stated there was never any threats to anyone at the Smoky Mountain News and the county commissioners were not able to provide any proof of threats. Terry Ramey was elected when 60 percent of Haywood County voters decided they didn't want Haywood County and Waynesville to become like Asheville and Buncombe County, and the Concerned Citizens will stand behind Commissioner Terry Ramey and expect the other four commissioners to include him and treat him with respect. The county commissioners have invited speakers to come support Terry Ramey, so plan to be at the next County Commissioner meeting, Monday February 6th at 9:00 at the Old Haywood County Courthouse, to speak out against their treatment of a fellow County Commissioner. Also, the County Commissioners have tabled the money to promote and push the COVID 19 vaccine on citizens. Please also speak out against that agenda.