Mariel Williams
editor@mitchellnews.com
The Mitchell County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution encouraging more public awareness of wildfire risk last week.
“Whereas Mitchell County has a high load of downed trees that are seasoned, increasing the potential fuel load and wildfire risk, and whereas wildfires pose a significant threat to the lives, property, and natural resources of Mitchell County, requiring proactive measures to mitigate the risk, and whereas Mitchell County currently enforces a burning ban that prohibits burning within 100 feet of a structure,” County Manager Allen Cook read from the resolution. “The Board of Commissioners urges residents, landowners, and visitors to exercise extreme caution with fire-related activities, adhere to all burn regulations, and support community wildfire prevention initiatives.”
Livestream concerns
Commissioner Harley Masters expressed concern that a special meeting at the end of February was not livestreamed the way most regularly scheduled Board of Commissioners meetings are.
“At our special workshop last week, I didn’t necessarily agree with the decision not to livestream it — I guess that’s just something that’s near and dear to my heart,” Masters said. “Last year, we livestreamed the budget meetings, which I think is really a good opportunity for people that can’t come or whether they choose to not come or not, but it is something that’s weighed heavily on my heart that we didn’t livestream it.”
Masters said she believes it’s important to have the livestream option available for Mitchell residents in the future.
“Moving forward, if there’s any meetings that the board opts to not livestream, I personally will probably livestream those on my campaign page like I did before we set up the livestream,” she said. “That is just simply because I’m a huge advocate for livestreaming. I have been the entire time that I’ve been in office, and I’m not planning on changing my stance on that now.”
Workforce housing nonprofit
Mitchell resident Debbie Stephenson spoke during the public comment period to introduce a new nonprofit, Tiny Together.
Tiny Together was founded by Stephenson and her husband Greg in 2023 to promote workforce housing solutions.
“And our goal is to provide safe, affordable housing to essential workers, such as teachers, first responders, vulnerable populations like veterans or domestic violence survivors,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson said Mitchell County’s housing crisis has worsened since Hurricane Helene (downgraded to a tropical storm after slowing down over land) damaged a significant portion of the housing stock.
“Many of these people were renting prior to fleeing, and, of course, as we all know, they have nowhere to go,” Stephenson said. “So, our organization recognizes the urgent need for sustainable, affordable workforce housing.”
Stephenson said her organization plans to build cabins and tiny homes to increase the housing supply.
“Obviously, the housing stock is not there right now. So, we know over the next five to ten years, we’ll be building,” she said.
Tiny Together also plans to offer support to prepare people for home ownership.
“We’re further committed to education and wraparound services. So, what that means is financial, career education, helping people learn what it means to be a homeowner,” Stephenson said. “Our goal is homeownership.”
Tiny Together is considering buying property in the Bakersville area.
“We don’t want to see any more of our restaurants and businesses close. And we don’t want it to turn into a ghost town up here,” Stephenson said. “So, we have an ambitious plan that will allow 45 families to recover and rebuild their lives.”
Cooperative Extension
The board also heard a presentation about changes at the local North Carolina Cooperative Extension Office, which offers agricultural and other services to rural communities.
Brandon Pitman, chairman of the Mitchell County Schools Board of Education and former coordinator of horticulture technology at Western Piedmont Community College, took over as extension director at the beginning of January.
“We’re here to help fuel the economy by delivering solutions directly into the hands of the residents of Mitchell County,” Pitman said. “We do that by extending research-based knowledge from two universities, two land-grant universities, North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University.”
Pitman said that there have been studies demonstrating the impact of Cooperative Extension services on local economies.
“For every dollar invested in Extension, it yields $27 in economic return,” Pitman said.
Pitman said that he is meeting with the North Carolina Forestry Service to discuss wildfire and invasive species mitigation.
“We’re having conversations about access roads, talking with timber owners, private property owners, talking with the area forestry specialists, with an extension campus specialist,” he said.
Pitman said that in honor of Small Farms Week at the end of March his office will be highlighting the work of different small farmers throughout the community. There will also be a self-guided farm tour March 28-29.
“There’s some conversation with what Appalachian Rebuild is doing with a bike ride coming through NCA&T in Mitchell County, so we’re kind of piggybacking with them,” Pitman said. “It just happened they correlate the same weekend, so we’re trying to advertise both of those together.”
Cook told the board that he has been impressed with Pitman’s work so far.
“He took an extension program that did not have any CED (county extension director) in place since before I got here as county manager, I would say about 2020 or so, and just out of the gate, two months into this, and you look at the program, we’ve not had an ag update of this magnitude in a long time,” Cook said. “I’m very proud of the work I’ve seen Brandon do.”
Sales tax report
Finance Officer Mavis Parsley told the board that, in spite of the economic struggles that have followed Helene, recent sales tax numbers have been encouraging.
“I’ve got an early indication on January’s sales tax, and actually it’s holding — we’re not dipping, we’re actually setting a little bit better than we were last year, which is amazing,” Parsley said.
Parsley said that she believes this good news is owning to the fact that the workers and volunteers who have come to help with clean up and repair have been spending money locally on food and lodging.
“We’ve got a lot of people in here doing a lot of work, so they’re having to buy things at Walmart,” she said.
Loan
The board approved accepting a loan from the state for $2,887,000.
“This money is coming to us from the North Carolina Department of Treasurer,” Parsley said.
The Disaster Recovery Act of 2024 established interest-free cashflow loans for communities impacted by Helene.