Good morning. This is Sean Wilson, the mayor of Waynesville, with your weekly update for January 6, 2025. First, I want to say Happy New Year and welcome back to all of our listeners and the citizens of Waynesville. I do have a few updates for this month and I encourage everyone to take note of them and share it with your neighbors. You can help us spread this message. First of all, I want to remind you that we have the free tax center that will be opening January 15th at 9 am and remain open from 9 am to 3 pm daily, monday through Thursday at 201 North Street in Waynesville. That's Monday through Thursday. Starting on January 15th, 9 am to 3 pm. Monday through Thursday at 201 North Street in Waynesville. This is a valuable resource and it is available to military retirees, department of Defense retirees, civilian non-military retirees and our Gold Star families. The service will operate on a walk-in and drop-off basis, making it convenient for those who need help with their taxes. So please help us share this information. So spread the word about this fantastic opportunity to support members of our community. If you have any questions about the Free Tax Center, feel free to call 573-452-8624, 573-452-8624. Also, I want to make mention that we have a public hearing that'll be on note for rezoning, scheduled for January 14th. On January 14th 2025, the planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing at 5 30 pm in the council chambers at City Hall. That's 100 Tremont Center. The purpose of this hearing is to consider the rezoning request for the property located at 103 North Bates Street, changing from zoning from R3 multifamily residential to C2 general commercial. I encourage any interested residents to attend the hearing and share their input. Following a public hearing, the Planning and Zoning Commission may make a recommendation to the City Council regarding the rezoning request. In addition to the planning and zoning hearing, we will hold a park board meeting on Thursday, january 16th, at 5 pm in the council chambers at City Hall. This meeting is open to everyone and I invite you to attend and learn more about the upcoming projects and initiatives in our parks.

Also, one of the most significant lessons we learned in April 2nd 2024, that windstorm was the need for more efficient ways to communicate with our citizens during emergencies. In response, we are excited to launch Hometown Grid. It's a new way, a multi-user system that will help us collect and manage outage information for our electric and water services. Here's how it works you call or you text 1-833-693-4925. That's 833-693-4925 to report an outage. There is no busy signals. Calls will be answered immediately and all reports will be logged. So there is also a texting option. Reports will be logged, so there is also a texting option. You can also attach pictures to your reports to help crews assess the situation faster. For those who prefer to call directly, you can also contact 573-774-6171. That's 573-774-6171, and select option one to report issues. Additionally, you can visit wwwhometowngridcom forward slash Waynesville. Wwwhometowngridcom forward slash Waynesville to view the city map and track reported outages in real time. We are proud of the progress we've made to improve our communication and response times and we'll be sharing a video tutorial soon to help the community better understand how to use this systems.

During these times of of of frigid temperatures, we do have a list of warming shelters so, as we brace ourselves for the colder weather, I wanted to remind everyone that the Pulaski County Emergency Manager has designated several warming shelters for those in need throughout the county. So I encourage you to visit the Facebook page for the Pulaski County emergency manager, but I'll share that there's two located in the city of Waynesville. As designated right now is Waynesville St Robert senior center and also the Waynesville library, and these will be open during regular operation hours. If the need arises, we will announce additional locations to ensure everyone has a warm place to go. Please check in, check on your neighbors, especially the elderly, elder individuals and those that are limited mobility, to ensure they are safe and warm.

I would like to invite you to visit the podcast channel. There is an interview with myself and Daniel Sheldon. Daniel Sheldon is our electric department supervisor and he gives a lot more detail about the hometown grid application and how it's used, and we answer some simple questions there. So I invite you to go there and listen to that. And, with that being said, as we enter 2025, I'm excited about the future of our city. We have several projects in the works to improve our infrastructure, enhance communication and ensure that Waynesville remains a safe, welcoming and thriving community. Thank you for your continued support and for making Waynesville the incredible community that it is. I wish you a all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. Let's work together to make 2025 our best year yet. And that concludes our update this week, and I look forward to seeing you around the town.