Weaverville – Before the board heard from citizens on the low-income apartment project, which dominated a good portion of the August meeting of the Weaverville Town Council (see article page ??), the board approved the consent agenda.
The consent agenda included several budget amendments; a minor modification to Northridge Commons Townhomes, a proclamation by the mayor naming September Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the town; a couple of road closures for the Art in Autumn and North Buncombe High School Homecoming parade; and a resolution supporting an option for remote/hybrid public meetings.
They also heard from Town Manager Selena Coffey in her monthly report to the board, where she told them the town council’s September workshop would focus on the bike-ped plan and discuss action steps during the meeting. She also said while the town was not awarded funding for its applications for the Water Supply Resiliency grant or the Water Treatment Plant Expansion grant during the spring 2022 funding round, staff met with their engineering firm, Withers-Ravenel, on August 17th and “discussed the potential for re-applying for funds from the approximately $50 million available in the fall 2022 funding cycle.”
She then said Councilman Doug Jackson and the town’s Patriotic Committee have been planning for the town’s 911 Observance, which will be held on September 12th at 11 a.m. at the stage at Lake Louise. She closed her report by saying staff has been working to develop a fuel conservation plan that includes buying electric vehicles for several of the town’s departments.
Councilman Andrew Nagle said the town should look into a solar panel system to charge the vehicles, which Mayor Patrick Fitzsimmons said was a good idea.
In the first action item, the board voted to extend the Weaverville Center for Creative & Healthy Living’s memorandum of understanding from one year to three after its first year of providing several successful programs for the new community center. Fitzsimmons praised the work of the “all-volunteer staff” of the group.
Coffey went over a more detailed plan for the future of the town’s water system, which she said is still incomplete. She anticipates the plan to change and be updated as time goes on. The plan is outlined several times for different steps with some costs. It included the seven steps outlined in an earlier council meeting. Those steps are:
1. Implement the water supply system resiliency improvements as soon as possible.2. Develop a more conservation-minded water rate structure (ie: higher rates for the more water used)3. Apply for federal/state grant funds in conjunction with the Town of Marshall to aid in the expansion of the town’s water treatment plant and a more regional approach to public water.4. Retrofit the water line connection to Mars Hill to provide Weaverville with emergency water and negotiate an emergency water supply for both towns.5. Connect the town’s water system to the Woodfin Water District and negotiate a supplemental and emergency water supply from Woodfin6. Reconfigure the town’s water system connection with the Asheville water system and negotiate a supplemental and emergency water supply from Asheville7. Proceed with the Water Treatment Plant Expansion Project with the timing to be determined in the near future.
The board also approved a redesign of the recreation area at Lake Louise’s Community Center, which removed the tennis court but did add an additional pickleball court for a total of four pickleball courts, as well as 23 parking spaces and a slightly smaller lawn game area.
The board approved a traffic calming plan for Lake Louise, which did not include speed bumps or one-way traffic. The project comprises updating signage around the lake, removing unnecessary and out-of-date signage, standardizing parking and other signage; adding four speed limit signs with solar-powered flashing LED lights, adding six signs to encourage walkers/runners to stay on the trail; better delineating the trail from the roadway; installing asphalt curbing that is painted with yellow high-visibility paint to delineate trail/roadway; increasing the visibility of existing lane delineation marker posts; and adding reflective striping to all existing posts to be painted green with reflective striping added for high visibility and visual cohesion. In addition, crosswalks will be improved from the large parking lot to the park trail and will add a high-visibility crosswalk from the Community Center to the park trail.
Staff estimated the cost of the traffic calming measures to be less than $13,000. Councilwoman Catherine Cordell thanked the staff for developing the plan that she hopes will make people feel safer using the park.
Before adjourning for the evening, the board heard the police and fire reports, both given by Police Chief Ron Davis, who is also the interim fire chief.Coffey did not report on how the search for a new fire chief was going.