Organization to help county focus on long-term recovery
The Mitchell County Board of Commissioners discussed a variety of issues related to disaster recovery and other county business at its regular meeting last week.
Long-term resiliency
Stephanie Pitman, chair of the Mitchell County Long Term Resiliency Group, gave a presentation about the new independent organization. The idea for the organization, she said, formed early on in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene (downgraded to a tropical storm after slowing down over land) last year.
“Early on, we had emergency teams here from Louisiana and Texas aiding the county, and we were strongly encouraged to put together a long-term recovery group,” she said. “Places in the country that deal with these types of natural disasters already have these groups in place. We obviously didn’t because we’ve never experienced anything of this magnitude.”
Pitman said her organization is devoted to both helping the community recover from Helene and also making sure the county is prepared for future disasters.
The organization is available to help storm victims with recovery needs that have not already been covered by other organizations.
“We don’t duplicate services,” Pitman said.
County Manager Allen Cook praised the group’s work so far.
“I really can’t say enough about it just to let folks know that when you see this thing built, it is a huge win for Mitchell County,” Cook said.
Cook also noted that other counties affected by the disaster have also organized independent long-term resiliency groups.
“Avery’s doing one,” he said. “Yancey’s doing one.”
Later in the meeting the commissioners voted to pass a Resolution of Support praising the Mitchell County Long Term Resiliency Group.
Oliver Anthony concert
A number of community members have expressed interest in finding out how much money a recent fundraiser concert featuring Oliver Anthony was able to bring in. Commissioner Harley Masters asked Board Chair Jeff Harding if he knew anything about the final numbers.
Harding said he could give some rough numbers of how the event turned out.
“Their cost, their indirect
cost for the production, was $78,000 and some change,” he said. “Our direct cost was right at $18,000. … With the ticket sales and the donations that came in, between our costs and their costs, there is about a $36,000 range there.”
However, Harding noted that this $36,000 might still increase, as at least one donation is still being processed.
“There is a donation that has been made by an individual with possibly a couple more to come,” Harding said. “It’s not a simple process that they write the check and send it in — it’s got to go through the trust, attorneys, and the whole ball of wax.”
Harding said that part of the benefit of hosting the concert event is that information about storm recovery will continue to spread to concert-goers on the rest of Anthony’s tour.
“So hopefully there’s a lot more donations that will come in,” he said.
New regional library agreement
The board voted to approve an agreement for the Toe River Valley Regional Library.
The agreement replaces the previous compact that bound together members of the AMY (Avery Mitchell Yancey) Regional Library.
The new agreement was needed because Yancey County is leaving the AMY Regional Library system this summer.
Fee waivers extended
The board voted to extend a period of offering to waive inspection fees for storm-related repairs until the end of the county’s fiscal year, which is June 30.
This had been discussed at a previous meeting, but board members had asked county staff to work out exactly how much money the county has lost since the waivers were offered.
In last week’s meeting Cook said that the waivers have cost the county approximately $32,000.
“What we’re facing with this budget … I don’t know how long we can extend it,” Commissioner Steve Pitman said.