Local leaders see major projects, growth in 2026

With 2025 in the history books and a new year underway, Duplin Journal reached out to mayors across the county for their predictions on what will be happening in their towns over the next 12 months.

Wallace Mayor Jason Wells believes this will be the year people begin seeing progress on all the promised growth in town.

“You tell people all the time we’ve got these great things coming, but then you don’t see much happen.” Wells said. “There’s a lot that happens; multiple engineers going back and forth, changing plans and involving the DOT. I think the things people will notice are some of (these projects) actually coming to fruition.”

Wells specifically mentioned work on Royal Farms and Starbucks as locations where people will see progress in 2026, in addition to a housing development behind Walmart.

In the county seat of Kenansville, Mayor Stephen Williamson told Duplin Journal that work on the town’s water and sewer infrastructure will be a major undertaking this year.

“Our plan is to finish up our Community Development Block Grant project on Church Street, which will improve the sewer system there,” he said. “We’ve received funding from the state to improve our water and sewer system as a whole, and we’re working on getting that started this year.”

Williamson added that the town is excited about the new playground going into Kenan Park.

“(The playground equipment) has been delivered and it’s now a matter of installation, which hopefully will be done by February,” he said, adding that the town board is committed to growing the parks and recreation opportunities in the community.

Faison Mayor Billy Ward said his town’s biggest focus is on the town’s milestone birthday this year.

“This year, July 2, two days before the country turns 250 years old, the town of Faison turns 250 years old,” Ward said. “It was founded two days before the country was by Henry Faison. He bought 975 acres of land here and that’s how Faison started.”

Ward said a 250th celebration will be held June 27 at the soccer complex on N.C. Highway 403 from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. The event will feature amusement rides for children, vendors, food trucks and will climax with a large, 15-minute fireworks display at 9 p.m. The event is a joint effort of the Town of Faison and the Faison Improvement Group.

Mayor Bobby Jones of Teachey hopes 2026 will begin work on the new subdivision along N.C. Highway 117 in town.

“Hopefully, they start construction of the subdivision the Murphy and River Landing builders are building,” Jones said. “We did some infrastructure and water and sewer work (at the site) at the end of last year, so I’m hoping they will break ground.”

“Also, we’re focusing on revitalization of our park,” Jones added. “We’ll be doing some new things there to revitalize it and bring people together.”

In Rose Hill, Mayor Davy Buckner is excited that a problem that has plagued the town for years will finally be tackled this year. It is an area of Walnut Street that has been the source of flooding and deteriorating road conditions.

“The problem with Walnut Street is it’s a disaster trying to drive down it, but we couldn’t do a whole lot about it until we took care of the drainage problem,” Buckner told Duplin Journal. “We got a partial grant to take care of it and we’re going to have to foot the bill for a good sum of it.”

Buckner added that another delay in getting the project started was in getting easements from landowners along Walnut Street.

“A lot of folks don’t understand there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get even the smallest projects done,” he said.

He said the drainage project work has already begun and the town hopes to resurface the road after that is completed this spring.

Buckner added that he is excited about the issuance of new building permits in town, including permits for a new subdivision.

Newly-elected Warsaw Mayor Wesley Boykin says 2026 brings some serious issues the town needs to address.

“There are a number of problems that are quite alarming in Warsaw,” Boykin told Duplin Journal. “There is one problem, however, that is at the top of that list, the Warsaw wastewater treatment capacity. The town has been fined several hundred thousand dollars due to (exceeding) capacity.”

Boykin says the wastewater capacity issue is not the fault of the residents or small businesses in town.

“The problem comes from two main corporate industrial facilities, and one of them is worse than the other. The elected officials and administrators did not address the problems and we’re now at the point, since 2020, of overcapacity and fines are pouring in.

Boykin added he also wanted to assure that the high-quality water in town remains affordable.

In Rose Hill’s neighbor to the north, Magnolia Mayor Dawn Ward says the town is beginning work on some major projects this year.

“The big thing for Magnolia this year is starting water and sewer infrastructure projects for which we were awarded $6.96 million last year,” Ward said. “We are also finishing up renovations on our former library building and anticipate it being ready to use as a community building in the early spring,” she added.

Pink Hill Mayor Mike Horne says his community, like Magnolia, is beginning work on water and sewer projects.

“Work should start this year on $5.6 million infrastructure work, mainly on water drainage problems and some more sewer lift stations that will bring sewage from south Lenoir and Moss Hill School to Pink Hill,” Horne said. “It takes a couple of years just to get them started. You have the grant work and then the surveying.”

Horne added that housing development is moving up.

“Right now, things are looking great for development of housing. We’re getting calls every day, even in the ETJ (extra territorial jurisdiction) about adding housing and manufactured housing. A guy is starting to build four duplexes in town this month and he is going to add up to 12.”

In Calypso, Mayor Marty Taylor hopes to tackle some water issues in his town, too.

“I’m really hoping to get some of the flooding problems taken care of, the ditches redone and new tiles put in to control the flow of water,” he said. “We’re trying to get some funding and grants to get that taken care of.”

Taylor also hopes to add another park in town.

“We’ve got a really nice park on one side of town and the kids from the opposite side of town have to come all the way across town to use the park,” he said. “I want to have a park on both sides of town. I wouldn’t want my kids having to walk all the way across town, not the way times are today.”

The briefest response to Duplin Journal’s request to mayors to look into 2026 came from the Mayor of Mount Olive, Jerome Newton. His response was only three words.

“Change. Good change.”