with additional reporting by Brionna Dallara
Asheville City Council unanimously approved 12 contracts at its Nov. 12 meeting to help the city recover from Tropical Storm Helene. The contracts, which passed 7-0, total about $16.3 million, including $14 million for repairing Asheville’s water system, $1.2 million for solid waste disposal and debris removal, and $850,000 for meals and lodging for emergency responders.
A contract that partners with Illinois-based Hagerty Consulting Inc. for recovery management services is capped at $1 million.
Another contract pays standby staff $120,000 per week to repair vehicles. It is unknown how long the supplemental contract will run.
The city expects all costs to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Helene recovery update
The city manager’s report was an update on disaster recovery efforts. The presentation by Rachel Wood, Asheville assistant city manager; Nikki Reid, economic development manager; and Stephanie Monson Dahl, planning and urban design director, addressed housing and economic recovery.
“The housing pipeline will be crucial to our recovery,” Reid told Council. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the city $1.7 million, in additional Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds in October. City staff will bring Council a proposed allocation plan for the funds this month, and Council will vote on the plan at its next meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 10.
Monson Dahl said city staff had attended or presented at over 20 meetings with business owners and advocacy groups to identify the public’s immediate priorities regarding economic recovery. Potable water was the No. 1 need, followed by debris pickup and funding sources.
“It’s not just loans but grants,” Monson Dahl said.
The public talks about eviction
Although evictions weren’t on Council’s meeting agenda, 10 speakers addressed the issue during general comments.
“Be relentless in your creativity to get rental assistance. Evictions are happening today,” Vicki Meath, director of Just Economics, told Council.
Asheville resident and restaurant employee Joel O’Brien said that many hospitality workers helped feed people in the wake of Helene.
“In an emergency, we know what to do — we feed people,” O’Brien said. “But when the emergency is over, they want to throw us out like trash.”
Jen Hampton, Just Economics housing and wages organizer and lead organizer for Asheville Food and Beverage United, called on Mayor Esther Manheimer to use her new appointment to Gov.-elect Josh Stein‘s transition team as an opportunity to lobby for rent relief for the community.
“We cannot keep putting people out on the streets. We did not choose to go through a natural disaster, but we do have a choice whether or not we go through an economic disaster,” Hampton said.
In other news
- The Nov. 12 meeting was Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore’s last as a member of Asheville City Council. She was elected in 2020. “I will miss your voice,” Council member Sage Turner told Kilgore.
- Council approved the purchase of four 30-foot, clean-diesel buses for Asheville Rides Transit (ART) for a total of $2.6 million. Council member Kim Roney asked why the hybrid buses in the city’s inventory cannot be replaced. Jessica Morriss, assistant director of transportation, said that the two bus manufacturers no longer make them.
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