County manager Avril Pinder’s proposed $441.9 million general fund budget, which still has to go through a public hearing and final vote next month, includes a 2.55 cent property tax increase next fiscal year.
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County manager Avril Pinder’s proposed $441.9 million general fund budget, which still has to go through a public hearing and final vote next month, includes a 2.55 cent property tax increase next fiscal year.
Project Aspire — a vast mixed-use, mixed-income venture slated for downtown Asheville — would have occupied 10.5 acres in downtown Asheville.
For this month’s “Around the Region,” Xpress talked to six area police chiefs about how smaller law enforcement agencies address crime, public safety, recruitment and retention, community relations and other issues.
Three candidates for Buncombe County Board of Commissioners gathered at the May 10 Council of Independent Business Owners meeting to lay out their vision for the county’s future direction.
The last time the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners met on May 9, it was facing an almost $14 million spending gap and the possibility that it would have to raise property taxes to fill it.
A proposed downtown business improvement district passed the first round of voting despite concerns about how it would operate. The vote defined the boundaries of the district and set a tax rate, but a second vote is required to establish the business improvement district, or BID.
The Community Reparations Commission of Asheville and Buncombe County passed three education-centric recommendations May 13, adding to the four endorsed earlier this month, informing how the city and county can make amends for generations of discrimination towards Black residents.
With the general election six months away, Xpress asked each candidate about campaign strategy and lessons from the trail thus far.
Less than two weeks before County Manager Avril Pinder must present a balanced budget to commissioners on Tuesday, May 21, the county has a $13.9 million funding gap in its projected operating budget, without considering requested increases for schools.
For the last year, officials with both Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County have debated what to do with the centrally located, ACS-owned facility on the corner of Haywood Road and Interstate 240. The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners got a plan update at its May 7 briefing meeting.
Both the city and county ordinances make it illegal for employers and business owners to discriminate based on any “difference in treatment based on race, natural hair or hairstyles, ethnicity, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin or ancestry, marital or familial status, pregnancy, veteran status, religious belief or non-belief, age, or disability.”
Commissioners will consider a new seven-year contract with global waste management company FCC Environmental Solutions, which — if ultimately approved at a meeting later in May — will be the county’s first new hauler since WastePro was hired in 2009.
“There are lots of things we can’t do, but are we doing what we can?” asks Council member Kim Roney, who is up for reelection this year.
“We often study an issue as if we are the first city to consider it. More often we are the last,” says Kevan Frazier, who is one of six candidates vying for three open seats on Asheville City Council.
The BID proposal requires two votes from Council, The first is slated for Tuesday, May 14, and the second on Tuesday, June 11. If approved, the governance structure of the BID will be established at a later date.
County expenditures are expected to grow by more than $8 million next year, to $444.9 million, said Buncombe County Budget Director John Hudson.
“There are layers of government in Asheville that can make our management and maintenance understandably confusing and frustrating,” says Council member Sage Turner, who is up for reelection this year.
As a deadline nears for the Community Reparations Commission, pressure mounts for the group to finalize its recommendations for how the City of Asheville and Buncombe County governments can make amends to their Black residents.
“Based on what we have heard from the community … I firmly believe that the best path forward will be to broaden the scope of our discussions to include those issues surrounding STRs,” board Chair Nancy Waldrop said during the April 22 meeting.
A public hearing on another controversial topic — rezoning for a large development at 767 New Haw Creek Road — has been postponed until Tuesday, June 11.
Council members voted 6-0 on April 16 to oppose the request, which bubbled up after the town implemented a stormwater fee last summer to comply with the state-issued permit it was in danger of violating.