Woodfin – The Town of Woodfin welcomed a new slate of officials on Tuesday, December 19 with a public inauguration. More than two dozen town residents, friends, and family members of the newly-elected officials crowded into Woodfin Town Hall.
Incoming Mayor Jim McAllister was elected with more than 75% of the votes cast in Woodfin’s November 2023 elections. New Town Council members Betsey Ervin, Johanna Young, and Ken Kahn were also sworn in.
“There were more candidates than there were seats,” said McAllister. “Some of us campaigned together; we knocked on a little over 700 doors. We really got after it this time, and I think people appreciated it. I really do.”
Prior to being sworn in, McAllister shared some of his goals as mayor.
“We want to do some progressive things. We’d like to take some of the town-owned land and see if we can turn it into affordable housing. We need to move forward in technology. Our police department is going to start buying hybrid or electric vehicles—those kinds of things.”
McAllister acknowledged a sense of renewed public engagement among Woodfin residents.
“The people of Woodfin are fired up. We had a bigger turnout this year than we did two years ago during the Bluffs controversy and that whole horrible real estate thing. That drove the highest turnout ever, and we beat it this time.”
The Bluffs was a polarizing development proposed for 82 acres along the French Broad River that received strong community opposition. McAllister stressed the need for sustainable growth as an alternative.
“There are people who accuse me that we’re going to ‘ruin the town’ and turn it into Asheville, and we’re not,” said McAllister. “That’s the last thing we want to do.”
McAllister highlighted the need for businesses that serve residents. “We have hundreds of mobile homes and mobile home parks. We don’t have a laundromat in this town. We could use businesses like that.”
He also suggested the need for additional restaurants to keep locals and visitors from needing to drive to nearby towns. “You know, we need somewhere to take your mom or husband out for a nice meal.”
He highlighted new businesses as a way of making the most of developing tourism assets, including the new Woodfin Greenway and Blueway and the Whitewater Wave.
“We’re opening the Wave; what if 5,000 people come on July the Fourth?” asked McAllister. “What are they going to eat? They’re going to spend all their money in Asheville, using something that Woodfin paid for. So, we really think we can attract—selectively—some businesses.”
McAllister sees the lack of a downtown or dedicated gathering spot as the biggest obstacle to building community. He hopes to put the river or other areas around town to more use for public activities.
“You know, the town’s never lit a Christmas tree, never had a July the Fourth parade, never had an Easter egg hunt,” said McAllister. “All towns have those. And I go to the park and there’s all these families with little kids—why should they have to go to Asheville to hunt Easter eggs? I got in because I want to make us more of a real community.”
McAllister emphasized his priority is welcoming all Woodfin residents into the community and ensuring the town government should resemble the citizenry.
“I sincerely believed that the old guard who had been running Woodfin had lost touch with the two or three thousand new people that had moved into town, including people like me who were treated and thought of as outsiders.” McAllister saw the make-up of the community firsthand while campaigning.
“As we went door to door, there were new families, young people, single people, gay people—I mean, it’s unbelievable. And we need to get them interested and involved because, in two years, there will be three council seats up. We need people interested and we’re going to put them to work.”
McAllister saw the strong turnout for Tuesday’s inauguration as a sign of things to come.
“When I got sworn in two years ago, it was kind of a perfunctory task. So the new people who got elected said, ‘Let’s do something different; make it a little nice.’ To fill a room like this is remarkable. We rarely have more than two people come, so something’s happening,” said McAllister. “I want more people to get involved, and so far the response has been tremendous.”