When I was leading tours for our family-owned business Dark Ride Tours a few years ago, I didn’t really have many first-hand experiences with ghosts. But when we were renovating the 1972 Cadillac hearse we used to transport guests, I was told by someone I consider spiritually sensitive that our hearse was indeed haunted.
The nearly 75-year-old facility was identified as a potential historic resource through the city’s African American Heritage Research Survey.
Administrators from local social media groups talk about the challenges inherent in their freewheeling, ongoing public conversations. Opinions vary on how much that rough-and-tumble interferes with achieving posters’ goals.
The county plans to spend $844,000 on new tax assessment initiatives over this fiscal year and the next. Actions include asking Buncombe residents to report improvements to their homes, buying software to double-check the valuations county staffers give to homes and reaching out to residents to help them challenge their property tax values.
Artists in the River Arts District contend with the rising cost of studio space caused by inflation, property tax increases and maintenance costs associated with older buildings.
Proposed changes on the agenda for the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, Oct. 18, include adding staff and improving software to make the county’s assessment of home values more accurate, asking state legislators to expand a tax break some homeowners get under state law and increasing efforts to tell homeowners how to challenge their tax value.
The 9.12-acre project s on Woodland Drive in West Asheville and will contain 72 two-story townhomes, 177 parking spaces, a playground and a nature trail along the perimeter.
Xpress sits down with Robin Lake to discuss her and her sister’s journey to uncovering her father’s military records and the subsequent honor their late father received.
Of the 20 North Carolina sites in the new report, six are in Western North Carolina — including the nonprofit’s No. 1 site, Interstate 40’s path through the Pigeon River Gorge.
The first phase, which could be voted on as early as December, would prohibit the use of plastic bags for curbside leaf collection.
Western North Carolina leaders have been thinking big when it comes to the region’s affordable housing crisis, with Buncombe County alone aiming to create or preserve up to 3,150 affordable units by 2030. But when it comes to actually building those spaces, some in the area are also thinking small.
Currently, Asheville prohibits the replacement of any manufactured home by another after its spot has been vacant for 180 days. City planners want to ease that rule and others to “stop the slow attrition of affordable housing units that are desperately needed in our community.”
While current city ordinances place some restrictions on panhandling, in most instances it is a legal means of making money. Bill Davis, spokesperson for Asheville Police Department, says police had received 95 calls for panhandling this year as of Aug. 17, the majority of which were requests for wellness checks out of concern for those in need.
Before the noise ordinance was passed last September, most noise complaints were called in to the Asheville Police Department nonemergency line. While APD still handles nighttime noise complaints and those that might come with safety risks, the city’s Development Services Department resolved 71% of complaints over the past year.
Rural northern Buncombe County is the first area in the county to see the result of the American Rescue Plan Act’s quest to expand reliable broadband access. Buncombe is one of 81 NC counties that have received state funding to improve internet service.
Xpress recently held its latest Best Of WNC party at Highland Brewing Co. Local business owners, artists, city leaders and readers joined us for an evening of great music, food and beer. Below are a few highlights we managed to snap amid the celebration. All photos by Susan Hutchinson, except if otherwise noted. Thanks to […]
Anne Adkins, a Gold Star Mother, discusses how her work with the Blue Ridge Honor Flight, helps provide her with an ongoing sense of purpose.
The event, hosted by Explore Asheville, featured presentations on the tensions between the cost and benefits of Asheville’s increased visitations.
“Crime is a serious issue and one that I hear about as a top concern for our community,” said Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer. “Is our community unsafe as the picture is painted by Fox News? No, absolutely not.”
Buncombe behavioral health manager Victoria Reichard noted that the county has received roughly $2 million of a more than $16 million lawsuit settlement, negotiated with pharmaceutical companies over their role in the opioid epidemic, this fiscal year. Of those funds, a county team has recommended about $518,000 in immediate spending.
Xpress takes stock of the current school boards and examines the challenges that lie ahead for their future representatives
