A year and a half ago, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners approved a nearly $221,000 contract with the UNC School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative for an affordable housing development study. On Tuesday, Oct. 3, commissioners will receive an update on the development plan.
“This is a really hard job,” says Rutha, who requested her last name be omitted for safety reasons. “So there has to be a desire to want to help people and to want to intervene and keep children safe and support families.” That desire has been tested lately, as the investigations division has struggled with staffing shortages, peaking in May when 11 of the department’s 29 positions were vacant.
“It’s a cynical and shameful ploy to deny you the ability to serve your constituents. It’s anti-democratic, and I look forward to working together with you to reject this encroachment on our rights to protect our health and the health of our mountains, rivers and streams,” Karim Olaechea, deputy director of strategy and communications for MountainTrue told commissioners during public comment.
With the city-owned auditorium closed to ticketed shows for the foreseeable future after its heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system failed in July, leaders in the city and local arts community are hoping this is finally the moment the Wolfe will get a makeover
If the application is approved at a future meeting, Buncombe hopes to get $1.6 million in federal funds allocated for rural transportation projects for Mountain Mobility, a community transportation service that primarily serves people with disabilities and older adults in Buncombe County.
The metric, drafted by Superintendent Maggie Fehrman, will focus on her progress in three categories: strategic plan development; strategic facilities planning; and leader accountability, transparency, governance and policy.
For the first time since 2015, students at 20 Buncombe Schools exceeded growth expectations during the 2022-23 school year, eight more than last year.
Tax Assessor Keith Miller says he is “very confident” that the changes he’s implemented will improve the process used in the next reappraisal in 2025. However, consultant Joe Minicozzi of the Asheville-based Urban3, whose unsolicited, unpaid analysis was what prompted the commissioners to establish the reappraisal committee, says those changes haven’t gone far enough and that the committee itself wasn’t given a sufficient opportunity to review his firm’s work.
Three Buncombe County shelters likely will add 43 beds for the area’s homeless population after the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved its half of the funding request at its Sept. 5 meeting.
As the newest appointees to the Buncombe County Board of Elections, Stein, a registered Democrat, and Braine, a registered Republican, are both impressed with the security and organization of Buncombe’s elections, despite allegations of election improprieties in other states.
As part of an interlocal agreement, the City of Asheville will administer $875,000 in county funds, as well as an equal city match, to three area shelter providers for extra beds.
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer led a chorus of support for the 83-year-old city landmark, which was forced to close temporarily July 5 after its heating, ventilation and air conditioning units failed.
The popularity of composting is growing in Buncombe County, and government-sponsored food-scrap collection programs are helping some residents divert food waste from landfills.
Starting Aug. 21, qualifying downtown workers can apply for one of 50 affordable parking spots in the College Street parking deck for $40 a month.
Amidst meetings with principals, administrative staff, board members and various ACS stakeholders over her first month on the job, Fehrman developed a three-pronged promise to “help focus and bring people together” in the upcoming school year.
News release from Asheville Police Department: The Asheville Police Department is asking for the public’s help in finding the person or persons who set two marked APD vehicles on fire early Aug. 14. The Asheville Fire Department responded to a parking lot near the 30 block of Lynndale Ave. in West Asheville in the early […]
Tax Assessor Keith Miller and County Attorney Curt Euler are recommending commissioners deny the request for an almost $280,000 refund on the grounds that GE did not appeal its apparent listing errors after they were made and the county had legal authority to levy the tax based on the information provided, according to a staff presentation.
Private schools likely will become more affordable for families of any income next school year at the expense of public schools. The N.C. General Assembly is set to pass what amounts to a veto-proof bill removing the income cap for the private school voucher program. Buncombe County’s two public school districts could be out a […]
House Bill 66, which was passed into law June 7, requires Buncombe County Schools to redraw its electoral districts based on population rather than traditional attendance zones, as they’ve done since 1975.
“They have given us a task that is fundamentally impossible,” said Board member Amanda Simpkins.
“Turnover, vacancies and an inability to fill the positions that we have available is leading to extremely high workloads, an inability to balance workloads and staff being more and more burned out and leaving the agency, which exacerbates the problem,” said Rebecca Smith, Buncombe’s social work division director.
Wilson, general manager of Wedge Brewing Co., will join the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority in September as one of two representatives of businesses not in the hotel or vacation-rental industry.
