Asheville – Capital Management Director Jade Dundas was prepared to give the Asheville City Council a positive report on construction projects. He began by celebrating ribbon cuttings from the previous year. Most of these were for sidewalk stretches costing millions of dollars, while others were for parks. A $280,000 playground in Carrier Park and $3 million in improvements to the Municipal Golf Course were completed before Helene. Acknowledging public demand, Dundas stated that the city would need to “go back and reconstruct [them] in their due time.”
He then spoke about the $530,000 public toilet downtown, which opened with a pink toilet paper (in lieu of ribbon) cutting on November 21. Dundas reported that it “is being used and holding up well.” With twice-daily cleanings, he noted it had only required 11 “instances of maintenance and cleaning beyond the norm.” Shortly thereafter, Mayor Esther Manheimer remarked about the new restrooms at Memorial Stadium, “I think those are the nicest bathrooms we’ve ever built to date.” In response, Dundas added that they provided a nice backdrop for McCormick Field as viewed from the stands. After more expressions of admiration, someone quipped, “We’re into glorified toilets, aren’t we?”
The mood shifted as Dundas discussed future projects. Too many people had received too much free money, and the council was considering spending disaster relief funds on deferred maintenance and pet projects. However, there were strings attached. “We’re following the FEMA process because we’ve been informed by our partners from Hagerty Consulting that we’re in a risk mitigation situation.” Translated, this meant that the federal government had a lengthy process that must be followed before the city could receive FEMA funds.
“I think people are being patient,” said Manheimer. “I don’t know how long that will last.” She inquired whether a public engagement process would be required for all projects, even those as simple as replacing a roof. “I don’t want us to be sitting here in 10 years going, ‘Well, this is taking a really long time because we’re doing engagement on everything.’”
After discussing which projects were appropriate or inappropriate for public engagement, she noted that, in addition to the $80 million in bonds approved in November, the city was set to receive $225 million in CDBG-DR (federal Community Development Block Grant—Disaster Relief) funds. Furthermore, “FEMA is going to provide 90% of all the dollars it’s going to take to repair all of this stuff, and the 10% match should come from the state. That’s traditionally how this works. It’s a matter of scaling up your department and replicating you, Jay Dundas, times 10 people to be able to project-manage all of this work.”
“That’s an unprecedented amount of money for this city to administer over a period. I think bond money has to be spent in seven years, and CDBG-DR will have to be spent in six. Unless we implement the most unprecedented and rapid hiring process I’ve never seen our city undertake, we will need to contract out to have people project manage all these projects.”
Councilwoman Kim Roney also challenged Dundas on postponing projects. For instance, he didn’t see the point in painting multiuse lanes on roads that would need to be torn up for new traffic signals and possibly a third time to upgrade curb ramps. “It seems like in this season of repair and disruption, as well as a lower daytime occupancy, that this would be exactly the right time to do what we did in 2020 with Haywood Street and get this done with the least amount of disruption.”
Dundas reiterated what he had said earlier about there being a lead time of over a year to obtain the equipment needed for the traffic signals. Many intersections would have to be shut down now, reopened for a year, and then shut down again for extended periods. More people would be inconvenienced less if all projects were completed during one closure. “Are we going to wait a whole year to decriminalize people’s personal mobility devices?” asked Roney.
City Attorney Brad Branham assured her that the city was working on this issue; however, in addition to practical concerns, staff had to navigate matters regulated by the state. The state owns and maintains many roads in Asheville, and their statutes don’t always align with local ordinances regarding paving different types of terrain and transitioning from greenways to sidewalks.