Route 66 Centennial Plans And Community Momentum

We share a safety-first plan for Route 66 upgrades, a slate of centennial events, and a community history project built to welcome visitors while honoring local roots. We also outline committee schedules, a legacy business program, the Veterans Day Parade, and how to vote for the Small Town Showcase.

• Sidewalk installation and speed awareness along Route 66 
• Committee week schedule across utilities, roads, public safety, HR and finance 
• Route 66 centennial events including the Great Race and Big Bam 
• Downtown upgrades with ADA crosswalks and improved lighting 
• Waynesville Action Group’s newspaper to document 100+ years 
• Invitation for every business to be featured in the history project 
• Legacy business recognition for firms 50+ years strong 
• Veterans Day Parade on 11 November at 11 
• Small Town Showcase voting via app and website

Please go and vote. If you have the city app, the link should be on the city app. You can go to our city website and you can also vote there. Vote as much as you can.

Transcript

New Year Priorities And Road Safety

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning everyone. This is Sean Wilson, the mayor of Waynesville, with your weekly update for January 5th, 2026. Happy new year to everyone, and I pray and hope that everything was wonderful over the holiday season. As we transition into this new year, there are many projects that will continue to expand and develop throughout the city. First, we see the great things happening along Route 66 with our sidewalk installation, an expansion project to improve safety for our pedestrians throughout the city. Let's remember to please watch our speed as we navigate the construction zones and please watch for pedestrians. This project should be complete by the fall. I want to take a short moment and remind everyone that this is our committee week. We started with our committee meetings this week on Monday, where we had our utility meeting, and that was followed by the economic development meeting. On Tuesday, we have the Roads and Grounds Committee meeting that takes place at 4 p.m. And then on Thursday, we have our police committee and emergency services as well as our human resource and finance committee. Um, please check our app and our schedule for the times and locations and to stay abreast of any changes that may arise. Also, on Monday, we had the Economic Development Committee meeting, and there were a few highlights that I want to share with you today just to kind of let you know a little bit about what's going to be happening this year. Everyone knows that we have been preparing for the centennial to this year is 100-year anniversary of the Route 66. So, with that being said, we have the Great Rest that'll be coming through the city of Waynesville June 2026. Over 100 vintage cars will be visiting. Of course, with that comes people, and we want to be able to share our story with them and welcome them to our city. We also have Big Bam that'll be taking place September around Labor Day weekend. Um, we also have the downtown infrastructure progress that is that's going to be that's taking place right now. We're gonna have sidewalk projects moving forward, new ADA compliant crosswalks with lighting coming to our downtown area. We also have our WAG, the Waynesville Action Group, that is working on a project to have this in place, this project complete before we do the kickoff for the Centennial this year. Um, what this project is is a newspaper project, and it's gonna document over a hundred years of Waynesville history, and it's gonna feature interviews with local businesses, residents, and organizations, and we want to share our story with the world so as people come through, they will have these newspapers and we can help to um not only preserve the past but also forge the way for the future by sharing um where we've come from and also where we're going. With that being said, if you are a local business, we will be visiting you. We want every business, every business represented in this newspaper. We want all of our history in this newspaper, and we have a great team that we have placed together to collect this information. So keep in mind if they come in, I already warned you, um, they want to include you, they want to include your story so we can best share our story about the city of Waynesville. We also have um a legacy business recognition program where we're looking to start to recognize businesses that have been in our community for over 50 years. Now we have had a lot of business serve within our community over the years. We have businesses come and business go, but those businesses that have been here for over 50 years are rooted and they are a part of the community, they are who serves our community. So we want to recognize them with the legacy business recognition, and these are some things that we're thinking about doing, and um hopefully we'll have that coming out here soon um before the summer. We also have this year in the city of Waynesville will be the Veterans Day Parade, so that'll be on, of course, November 11th at 11, and it's also during the centennial, so there's a lot of great things and opportunities here to share and show our support for our veterans, our community as a whole, and also uh with this Centennial Route 66, this is gonna be a phenomenal year. Um, with that being said, we also have the 250-year anniversary of America, so a historical year for tourism and community celebration. So get connected, see how you can help share the story and also take part in this awesome, awesome um project. I would like to also remind everyone and inform those that may not know, but the city of Waynesville has been selected to compete for the small town showcase, and this the pro this provides yet another opportunity to share our city story. So we're asking everyone to please go and vote. If you have the city app, the link should be on the city app. You can go to our city website and you can also vote there. Vote as much as you can. Help us to win this showcase, it gives us an opportunity to share our story again. It's telling our story about Waynesville. There's a lot that is happening here, there's a lot of history here, and it's definitely a great future. And with that being said, I'm gonna end our update today. Um, thank you for your service. Thank you for helping our community thrive and grow. And I look forward to seeing you around the town.