“The Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Board of Commissioners have a unique opportunity to be leaders on the issue of LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections.”
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“The Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Board of Commissioners have a unique opportunity to be leaders on the issue of LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections.”
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners directed health staff to set aside 975 vaccine doses per week — half of the weekly 1,950 doses that North Carolina has been sending the county — for school employees starting Wednesday, Feb. 24.
“Keep in mind that 20% of anything harmful is still 100% harmful.”
At the Tuesday, Feb. 16, meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, members will vote to accept an additional $1.75 million grant for the Safety and Justice Challenge from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
While the median sales ratio for the county overall increased by roughly 18% the rise was not evenly distributed. Urban areas such as Central Asheville and Southside generally saw larger percentage gains than did rural areas like Candler and Avery Creek.
Presentations by the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment and Planning Board, both delivered to the county Board of Commissioners on Feb. 2, emphasized the need for changes in how the county handles its zoning and land use policy.
Six months ago, as part of a reckoning on racial injustice, the city of Asheville and Buncombe County both passed resolutions to consider reparations to the Black community as a way to begin making amends for slavery and generations of systemic discrimination. Since then, local officials concede, little has been done.
Of Buncombe County’s roughly 1,600 employees, 465 are currently working remotely, and 283 have said they would continue to do so indefinitely if allowed. If those employees remained remote, the county would need about 22,700 fewer square feet of office space, allowing for more services to be consolidated in fewer buildings.
“We cannot avoid the hidden phantom side effects of the desecration of the monument, held so dear by so many.”
“We are all the alert and knowledgeable citizenry that President Eisenhower warned would be necessary to prevent what we see happening in Buncombe County and we say: ‘No more, reject Raytheon!'”
On Tuesday, Feb. 2., the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners will vote on accepting a U.S. Department of the Treasury grant for emergency rental assistance. the funds would support households financially hurt by the pandemic with rent, utilities and and other expenses related to housing.
“You can’t keep doing that year in and year out. You need to keep an eye on that,” external auditor Michael Wike told the Asheville City Board of Education about the school system’s spending at a Dec. 7 work session. “What happens when you don’t have a fund balance is almost like an individual living paycheck to paycheck: You can’t plan for the future whatsoever.”
“Hospitality and culinary professionals are being mandated and regulated out of business for the sake of optics and at the senseless sacrifice of hardworking people and their families.”
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and other supporters say jobs at the aerospace manufacturing plant will provide opportunities for workers to improve their standards of living. Critics say those wages are not worth the moral cost: Bolstering a military-industrial complex that causes deaths half a world away and eats up government funds better spent on other needs.
COVID-19 vaccination initiatives announced by the county include a drive-thru site for second doses at A. C. Reynolds High School and a waitlist for first-dose vaccination appointments. The waitlist will replace a system that requires residents to schedule appointments directly as vaccines became available.
The state grant for Buncombe’s Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, funded as part of the first federal COVID-19 relief package, will be considered at the Tuesday, Jan. 19, meeting of the county Board of Commissioners.
“We recognize that it’s not a perfect system and the demand is quite high,” said Stacie Saunders, Buncombe County’s public health director, at a Jan. 12 special meeting called to address local vaccination efforts. “We just want to reiterate that we will not have sufficient supply of vaccine for a very long time, so it is likely that we will still hear frustration and concerns about being able to get an appointment.”
“We should be giving tax incentives to local sustainable businesses, not to a multinational corporation that relies on fossil fuels and perpetuates a war industry that is the scourge of the world.”
Seven North Carolina counties now offer paid days off to care for a new child or an ailing family member.
Nearly $118,000 from the Dogwood Health Trust will hire a program manager as part of a previously funded community paramedic team. And $900,000 in federal funds will support housing and utility payments for county residents who have lost income due to COVID-19.
“What issues did Xpress readers feel passionate enough about to write letters to the editor or commentaries during a year that promises to go down in history?”