Weaverville – While an attempt to put together a face-to-face forum for Weaverville candidates failed (see sidebar), there was an online forum held by the Democrat party in conjunction with the Progressive Democrats of Buncombe County. However, not every candidate received an invitation to participate in the meeting; only four candidates were invited.
Doug Jackson, Patrick Fitzsimmons, Catherine Cordell and Michele Wood took part in the more than an hour-long online forum. It is unknown how many citizens actually watched the forum as that feature was not available and an attempt to reach the forum sponsors was unsuccessful. Both Thomas Veasy and Randy Cox confirmed that they were not invited to participate in the forum.
The forum
The meeting was moderated by Barrie Barton, who asked the candidates to introduce themselves. After doing so, Barton asked all candidates what their top three agenda items were.
Cordell said the continuing expansion of the water treatment, which now has a price tag of over $13 million, pedestrians crosswalk and broadband service for the public. Jackson responded maintaining the downtown atmosphere, continuing water treatment expansion and seeing phase II of the new community center to completion. Managing growth, expanding recreation opportunities and communication was Wood’s response. Fitzsimmons said controlling growth and development along with continuing water treatment plant expansion.
Barton’s next question came down to what is the solution to the area’s overpopulation and congestion. Jackson said the town should be careful where “we do volunteer annexation” and blending growth with infrastructure. Fitzsimmons responded with increasing density of development and making the area more pedestrian and bike-friendly. Woods said making affordable housing available for young people and older adults in order to attract the young families along with infiling areas with smaller houses. Cordell also talked about affordable housing.
Next, Barton asked about how the town would improve its relationship with Buncombe County. Fitzsimmons said there was a long history of not trusting Asheville and Buncombe County and “I think that’s unfortunate when we really can make the most progress and best progress when we work together.” Jackson said better communications was the answer. Cordell responded that she felt like Buncombe County was getting overbearing in the case of the 911 Call Center where Buncombe was demanding payment from Weaverville and Woodfin for that service after years of providing it to all Buncombe taxpayers. She also said that relationship would be a learning curve. Wood also said that it be a learning curve and the town was blindsided by the county on the 911 issue.
Asked about how Weaverville could help with Climate control measures
Cordell responded by placing solar panels with batteries on public buildings. Jackson said the town had already started looking but was weighing cost and reward and the town already had some hybrid police vehicles. Wood said charging stations on Main Street and the new community center. Fitzsimmons said adding solar and bike/pedestrian corridors.
Baton also wanted to know if the candidates supported Asheville Regional Transit (ART) effort to provide service to Weaverville to help with traffic. Fitzsimmons said yes and that it was tried once with not a lot of ridership, so it was canceled. Cordell said yes, along with Wood, who said Mountain Mobility connected residents to get to Woodfin. Jackson said the last time the town tried it, it cost $10K and there were not enough stops for the riders. As the forum wrapped up, Fitzsimmons endorsed the candidates at the forum
Those who weren’t invited
The Tribune encouraged the uninvited candidates, Cox and Veasey, to answer the forum questions covered in this article. Here are their responses:
Thomas Veasey:
A. Top three agendas:
1. Better accountability with the town Council and its residence.
A. Getting the monthly town council meeting agenda out a week ahead of time, not on the Friday before the monthly meeting on Monday. This will give the towns residence more opportunity to see what is going to be discussed at the next town council meeting.
2. Work on solving our infrastructures issues.
A. Work on solving our ever-growing downtown parking problem so, that our downtown businesses can continue to strive and grow.
B. We now have a major water issue. For several years now, we have had a moratorium on selling water outside of town limits. Now that the expansion of the water treatment plant may be put on hold due to the fact that the estimated cost of construction has gone from $6+ million to well over 13+ million, this now becomes a sticking point for the continued growth of Weaverville and its residences. The point being, if I’m correct, we are operating at 75% consumption now, and if 80% is reached, state regulations kick in and mandate that some changes need to be made to lower this amount.
3. Also, with our ever-growing population of single-family homes and multi-housing developments, more parks and recreation facilities are going to be needed for our children to play in.
B. Overpopulation: we are not going to stop growth. It is going to take place. We can only slow it down. The surrounding Buncombe County areas around Weaverville are going to continue to grow whether we like it or not. We need to have a working plan in place to handle this growth which will allow our town to grow and be an economically stronghold in the area. So that we can preserve our sovereignty and autonomy from Buncombe County and Asheville.
Randy Cox:
Your top three agenda items for the town? Support Common Sense Policies. Small business owner, and Advocate, Protect Weaverville Election Integrity.
What is the solution to overpopulation happening in our area? It will happen like it or not. I believe in strategic growth.
How to have a better closer relationship with Buncombe County? Request better use of our tax dollars. Weaverville is doing great.
What can the town do to help with climate control measures? Research more high tech business.
Would you like to see Asheville Regional Transit (ART) service to Weaverville? Yes, but it is not logical at this time with not enough parking in Weaverville.
As you can see, I am a man of few words. All my years of photographing weddings taught me to go with the flow UNTIL the progress of the events got bogged down and then I would make suggestions to restart the flow. Leadership wisdom lies in listening to your neighbors’ concerns and keeping progress flowing.