Actions taken at the the Sept. 13 meeting of the Buncombe Commissioners

Here’s a list of actions taken at the Sept. 13 meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. We’ll have a full report in the Sept. 21 issue of Xpress There is also Twitter-based coverage of the meeting here.

• Wanda Greene reported that the county recently condemned the former CTS of Asheville building on Mills Gap and will move to demolish it soon.

• The commission voted 3-0 (Board Chair David Gantt and Commissioner Holly Jones were absent) to appoint David Begley, Jennifer Cable and Keith Webb (at large) to the Buncombe County Parks, Recreation and Greenways Advisory Board.

• The board voted unanimously to submit the county’s application for roughly $319,000 in state Rural Operating Assistance Program grants.

• Commissioners heard a series of reports from county staff on the government’s environmental impact and green initiatives. A few factoids gleaned from the reports:

— The Buncombe County landfill receives and processes on average one million pounds of trash every day.

— The new Buncombe County courthouse currently under construction will be local government’s first LEED certified building. It will also be one of the biggest buildings in the county, encompassing about 100,000 square feet.

— 92.6 percent of Buncombe County employees drive to work, with an average round trip commute of 27.62 miles. County staff said they’re looking at ways to decrease those carbon emissions.

— Overall, the county’s carbon footprint has gone up over the last five years due to facility expansion, but its footprint per–square–foot of space has gone down. Staff credited new windows and heating and cooling systems for the improvement and touted the resulting cost savings.

— The Buncombe County Dept. of Human Services building on Coxe Ave. is scheduled to to be fitted with a solar thermal hot water system and electric vehicle charging stations.