Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chair Brownie Newman declared a local state of emergency due to the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 in North Carolina. The move followed a statewide emergency declaration from Gov. Roy Cooper just two days earlier. Mayor Esther Manheimer subsequently declared a state of emergency for the city of Asheville.
During their meeting of Tuesday, March 10, Asheville City Council members will consider a $473,000 contract for emergency repairs at the North Fork Water Plant, the largest of the city’s three water treatment plants.
While only two cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, have so far been confirmed in North Carolina, local health department officials are working with state and federal agencies to monitor people within Buncombe County who may be infected.
Representatives from Buncombe County Health and Human Services, Buncombe County Emergency Services and Mission Health held a press conference Feb. 28 about plans to prepare for and prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the county.
“The good news — if you’re someone who wants to see the hotel tax law changed — is that all parties seem to be in agreement,” Newman told Xpress. “They want to see the law changed, but at this point, we’re not on the same page about how to change it.”
Asheville City Council will urge Congress to pass the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which is aimed at reducing fossil fuel use by imposing a tax that would increase over time. Before the 6-1 vote approving the board’s resolution, with Council member Brian Haynes opposed, members of the public weighed in on whether imposing such a tax is the right step.
Asheville City Council will consider a number of items on its consent agenda for Tuesday, Feb. 11, including managing parking at the airport and setting a hotel development work session.
While some might find the notion morbid, author and activist Patti Digh says contemplating life as if it had a rapidly approaching expiration date actually reminds her to take care of herself and savor each moment.
After spending much of her working life as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, Asheville career coach and entrepreneur Laura Juarez says that taking time to relax, unwind and detach may be the key to increased workplace performance and job satisfaction.
All nine Asheville City Council candidates shared their thoughts and ideas on everything from climate change to raising employee wages at the Asheville City Council Candidate Forum hosted by Mountain Xpress.
Author and herbalist Maia Toll says incorporating herbs and medicinal plants into self-care routines involves more than just a chemical reaction in the body: It’s a way for people to link their personal health and well-being with ancient traditions and the natural world.
In his 2018 book, #Chill: Turn Off Your Job and Turn On Your Life, psychotherapist Bryan Robinson says people don’t need lavish vacations or expensive therapies to practice self-care. Instead, he recommends what he calls “micro-chillers” that can be performed in just a few minutes a day to help relieve anxiety, enhance mental clarity and soothe physical tensions.
“Our world is designed to be one big distraction: YouTube, email, Instagram, deadlines and numbing addictions,” declares Lara Ferguson Diaz, an acupuncturist, herbalist and qi gong instructor at Lutea Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine. “It is vital for our health to turn inward and be still and silent.”
Yoga instructor Melissa Bertenthal asks readers to look past traditional notions of self-care.
As presidential hopefuls blitz the airwaves over the coming months to hook undecided voters, the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority will be stepping up its own campaign. The authority’s board voted to increase its spring and summer advertising budget by $1 million, for a total of $12.65 million, during a Jan. 29 meeting. “We considered […]
Some Council members were ready to put the peddle to the metal in the search for new transit system funding on Jan. 28. Not so Council member Vijay Kapoor, who convinced his peers to set the throttle to idle until the board’s next meeting, when the issue will be part of the formal agenda.
Press release from Down Home Haywood County: On Feb.15, Down Home Haywood will host its monthly community organizing meeting which is open to all. Chelsea Hoglen, Haywood Chapter Organizer, explains: “We will proceed with the New Year by introducing our new campaigns based on the 2020 priorities that we chose at our January meeting. […]
After months of disagreement, Asheville City Council is set to hear an updated climate emergency resolution produced jointly by the Sunrise Movement and the city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and Environment during its Jan. 28 meeting.
Most downtown visitors and business folk see the need to fix crumbling sidewalks and improve other infrastructure on and around Haywood Street. But as the project to renovate the area kicks off, the impacts of the construction on retail stores and other downtown denizens remain to be seen.
When she was just 17, Melissa Colin decided to join the military as a combat medic. “When I first went in, I actually really loved it,” Colin recalls. “I had just gotten out of high school; I had to have my parents’ signature and all that.” Shortly after enlisting, however, she was sexually assaulted, which […]
Holding onto hope — even when things appear darkest — was a key aspect of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message at the height of the struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and ’60s, says local civil rights icon Oralene Simmons. And that notion still rings true today, more than 50 years after King’s […]
