Good morning. This is Mayor Wilson, with your weekly update for March 17th 2025. Waynesville continues to grow and thrive and I want to take this opportunity to update our residents on important community matters, upcoming events and recent accomplishments. As your mayor, I am committed to keeping you informed and ensuring open communication between city officials and the people that we serve. First of all, I want to talk about effective communication, and this is something that I see a lot on social media. But effective communication is essential in maintaining a strong and well-connected community.

My office, along with the elected city council, is dedicated to enhancing transparency and making it easier for our residents to have their voices heard. For those with specific concerns, I encourage you, as residents and citizens of our city, to use the proper channels to report issues. If you notice a damaged stop sign or overgrown foliage or potholes or similar neighborhood concerns, you can call 573-774-6171, 573-774-6171, and you can request to submit a work order for that issue. Your eyes are important. We work together as a community. Of course, we can't be everywhere all the time and we may miss some things. So we have councilmen working, we got city workers working, but with the work, the help of the citizens, we can help keep track of all of these infractions and try to resolve these issues as soon as possible. I would also like to share that if there's possible violations to city ordinances, such as excessive noise or nuisance violations, I would tell you after duty hours the best number to call is 573-774-2414. And that is the Waynesville Central Dispatch Office. Again, that's 573-774-2414. Four, two, four, one, four. In case of a power or water outage, residents can use the hometown grid outage reporting system by calling or texting one, eight, three, three, six, nine, three, four, nine, two, five. That's one eight, three, three, six, nine, three, four, nine4925 to track, update and repairs efficiently. Now we know that we've been using this hometown grid program and app and it has been a great, great addition to our community to increase our response time and keep track of all of the outages that have been reported. So thank you everybody for sharing that information. Continue to spread that information about that app because the more people that we have that know about it, we can make sure that we're covering our city and taking care of one another, our neighbors, especially our elder population, and also remember that residents are always welcome to reach out to their elected representatives for your respective wards, whose contact information is available on the city's website at WaynesvilleMOorg Committee meetings are held during the first week of each month provided further opportunities for our community to engage with its city leadership.

So we want to encourage you not only to use everything that I talked about previously, but I also want to reiterate that the elected officials are working for you so you can contact them, you can let them know your concerns. They can push those things up so you always have a means of sharing your information and your concerns. They can push those things up, so you always have a means of sharing your information and your concerns about things that are happening in the community and it's not just concerns, it may even be input and ideas about different things, about how you want to be involved and things like that, because it takes the entire community really to foster an environment that is conducive for the growth that we have and continue moving in the right direction. I also would like to say, for those who prefer real-time updates, we did launch in January a new website. With that website came an app. So we want to encourage our residents to download the city's notification application, its app, with the website, which provides alerts and information about city initiatives, projects and events. So we encourage you to get connected and continue to please spread the word.

I want to take this opportunity to share with you that, well, spring is on the horizon and, with that being said, we got two very important notes I want to bring to your attention. First is spring cleanup. The annual spring cleanup is scheduled for April 17th through the 18th, so on your respective days for your trash pickup, that is the day that you will have your items picked up. We ask that all approved items be placed curbside no later than 7 am on your scheduled trash day. So again, april 17th and 18th. The accepted items include appliances, construction waste that fits into a trash can, furniture and flat screen TVs. However, items such as tires, yard debris, hazardous chemicals and refrigerators will not be collected. Again, the flat screen TVs are the only ones that will be accepted. Any other tube TVs will not be accepted.

I also want to take this opportunity to let everybody know that, since we're in the spring season, we know that this is the time of season where we're going to encounter some severe weather, as we've seen. Last week there was a major storm that took place and we consider ourselves very fortunate that we did not sustain any damage, but that does not mean that it's not imminent and it's not possible coming up here in the next few months. But we want to encourage all of our citizens to continue to stay connected with the city and utilize apps such as the KY3 weather app. We also want to make sure that all of our citizens are aware of the hometown grid and download the city's app so that you can receive notifications there, because we will send out notifications through that platform as well. So you have the KY3 weather app, you have the hometown grid app. You also have the Waynesville city application, which you can download in your app store. Either Android or Apple is available. So please stay connected. You can also, if you would like to, you can sign up for alerts from the Pulaski County emergency Services Department, and you can do that by texting ALERT to 573 433-8083. Again, text ALERT to 573-433-8083.

I would also like to share some community safety and election reminders, just so that everybody understands this. Road safety remains a priority for our city, priority for our city. I want to remind the residents that Missouri, in Missouri, it is illegal to hold or support a cell phone while driving. Hands-free devices such as speaker phones or Bluetooth are allowed. Let's work together to keep the road safe. Buckle up and please put the phones down. Additionally, I also like to share that April 8th the municipal elections is fastly approaching. I encourage all our eligible residents to vote. Absentee voting is now open at the Palassi County Courthouse, available Monday through Friday from 8 am to 4.30 pm. Participating in local elections is one of the most important ways to shape the future of our community.

Now just for a few updates for events that will be taking place in the Ruby Dew Park. First, we have the Best Sapper competition that will take place April 26th from 9 am to 11 am in Ruby Dew Park. This event is open to the entire community and showcase the incredible skill and dedication of our military partners. We're always happy to facilitate this. This is the third year in a row, so we're really excited about having them back down in the community. We also have the Army Chemical and Biological Regiment Best Warrior Competition that will take place May 30th. Residents are invited to witness this outstanding competition as well.

On June 7th, we will have the Kids to Park Day from 10 am to 2 pm at the city's park. This event is designed to encourage families and children to get outside, explore nature and enjoy outdoor activities in our beautiful park system. Finally, I want to encourage all of our residents to take an active role in shaping our city's future by staying informed, attending city council meetings and participating in upcoming events. By working together, we can ensure that Waynesville remains a vibrant, safe and welcoming place for all. So thank you for being a vital part of our community and I look forward to seeing you around the town.