The Mitchell County Board of Commissioners approved two engineering contracts and passed a resolution in support of the Mitchell County Economic Developent Commission in a recent meeting.
Rural Building Reuse Grant
The board held a public hearing on the subject of the EDC’s intent to apply for a Rural Building Reuse Grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce for construction of a new medical center for Mountain Community Health Partnership.
There were no comments or questions from the public during the hearing.
County Manager Allen Cook said that for rural healthcare needs the grant will also cover new construction, although in most cases the grant only covers reusing old buildings.
The board voted to approve a resolution supporting the EDC’s application.
Bowman storm damage
The board approved contracting out to Bunnell Lammons Engineering a building damage assessment for the old Bowman school building in Bakersville, which was damaged in Hurricane Helene (downgraded to a tropical storm after slowing down over land).
The county had agreed to take over ownership of Bowman from the Mitchell County Schools after it was no longer needed as a school, as the school district was building the new combined Mitchell Middle School at the time.
This property transfer was complicated by the fact that the building received storm damage in the middle of the process.
“We did an assessment of Bowman back about January — before Helene hit — of 2024,” Allen Cook said. “So, we were talking to FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) — they can send a team out that will do an assessment, but, not to dish on FEMA, they wouldn’t even climb a ladder to get on the roof, to assess the roof.”
Concerned that FEMA’s assessment would not accurately reflect the property’s needs without examining the roof, Cook said that he climbed up on the roof and took picture’s with the FEMA representatives’ official phone, however, the agency is not willing to use those pictures in its official assessment.
“Since we had a January (2024) assessment by this engineering group pre-storm, and I’ve got on the agenda to have an assessment done by this same group so they can compare and contrast what’s happened to that building over the course of the year,” Cook said. “The roof was compromised during the storm … that’s probably the major expense in that damage assessment.”
The engineers’ new damage assessment will contribute to obtaining FEMA funding to repair Bowman.
“FEMA is never a sure thing; they might ask for about another 100 documents after we give this and then say ‘no,’ but we still need it whenever we’re doing Bowman renovation and trying to move forward,” Cook said. “You’ve got to get the outside of the structure sealed before you can do the inside.”
Cook expressed hope that, if FEMA is willing to pay for repairs to the roof, the agency will also pay for the engineering assessment.
County Attorney Four Eggers had some suggestions for improving the contract so that a FEMA reimbursement is more likely.
“We will also need to add an addendum that has 26 FEMA compliant terms; that makes our contract more likely to be acceptable and reimbursable,” Eggers said.
New press box & dugouts
The board voted to approve a proposal from Cook Engineering for a new press box and dugouts for Mitchell County Parks and Recreation.
The county manager said that there is a need for this at this time because there will be electrical connections between the dugouts and press box to the lighting that is currently being constructed.
Additionally, Cook said, this design proposal was included in the original scope of work that the grants funding the new recreation center included.