Biz Briefs: Mountain BizWorks, Dogwood Health Trust team up for PPP 2.0

PPP 2.0 Help is at hand for qualifying local businesses seeking to access federal pandemic relief funding. In partnership with Dogwood Health Trust, Mountain BizWorks has opened the application process for a second round of Paycheck Protection Program awards. As with the first round of funding, DHT is committing $2 million to enable Mountain BizWorks […]

Richard Houck, Fred Jones and José McLoughlin

Wellness in brief: Dogwood Health Trust shifts board makeup

Retired Rear Adm. Richard Houck of Transylvania County, attorney Fred Jones of Macon County and Bishop José McLoughlin of Henderson County will join the board of Western North Carolina’s largest nonprofit as Buncombe County’s Dr. John Ball departs. The change fulfills requirements stipulated in N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein’s approval of Mission Health’s sale to HCA Healthcare.

Mission Health cancer center exterior

From AVL Watchdog: Mission sale: Good for WNC, or just HCA?

Years from now, the decision in 2018 by the directors of Mission Health to sell to HCA Healthcare might be seen as a brilliant strategic maneuver, one that guaranteed affordable, high-quality healthcare for future generations of western North Carolinians. This was, and still is, the position of the directors and executives who pushed the deal.

Buncombe County seal

Buncombe considers condemning Catawba casino on Aug. 18

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Richard Sneed, whose tribe owns two casinos in Western North Carolina, had lobbied the board to oppose the rival operation at an Aug. 4 briefing. He argued that the Catawba Indian Nation, members of which primarily reside in South Carolina, were not properly authorized to operate gaming across state lines.

Buncombe County seal

Commission considers county, city employee sharing

According to the formal agreement, up for a Board of Commissioners vote on Tuesday, April 21, both city and county staffers would remain employees of and still be paid by their respective governments while carrying out their new duties. Asheville and Buncombe County would be required to cover the expense of all personal protective equipment for workers from the other government.

Erik Erik Hooks at COVID-19 briefing

State prisons begin moving inmates to community supervisio­n

While specific conditions would be decided “on a case-by-case basis,” said N.C. Secretary of Public Safety Erik Hooks, prisoners could be tracked using home confinement or electronic monitors to ensure they were adhering to their sentences. He noted that juvenile offenders were also being diverted from detention facilities to community-based programs whenever possible.