Buncombe County commissioners took steps Tuesday to build more than half a mile of sidewalks in Swannanoa’s historic business district.
The Board of Commissioners accepted two state grants for the work and approved shifting other funds to construct new sidewalks and repair or replace old ones along streets just west of the former site of Beacon Manufacturing Company’s blanket plant, which burned down in 2003.
County officials plan for $400,000 of the money to come from a grant for repairs to homes owned by low- and moderate-income county residents that county government received in December 2022 but has yet to spend.
The sidewalk project is intended to boost business activity and increase safety in the community that was hit hard by Hurricane Helene.
The work will bring a total of 2,900 feet of sidewalk to Whitson Avenue and three streets – Alexander Place, State Avenue and Railroad Street – between Whitson and Park Avenue.
Many sections of those streets have no sidewalks and some that do exist are in poor condition. The three cross streets were little traveled when this reporter visited Monday.
The area is likely to see more traffic when Beacon Park, to contain a paved “pumptrack” for bicycles and other amenities, opens on the former blanket plant site. A handful of businesses have opened in the area this year and the park website says it will open this winter.
Commissioners voted to accept $1.8 million in state Helene relief money for the work and to seek an additional $719,400 for it.
Work along Whitson is to be completed by summer 2029 and by fall 2028 on the three side streets, said Kevin Madsen, the county’s Helene recovery officer. The state Department of Transportation will draw up plans and oversee construction then the county will be responsible for maintenance, he said. NCDOT owns the streets.
Commissioners approved Tuesday seeking permission to redirect the home repair grant to the sidewalk project and asking for additional money to fill a funding gap. It took time to set up an administrative structure to spend the money, then the county had difficulty finding a company to perform the repairs, Rachel Sawyer, county director of strategic partnerships, told commissioners.
“It is a complex funding source. It took a couple of years to get the program ready,” she said.
Helene put a halt to the effort, she said, and the county then determined that it would be better to use other money that comes with fewer restrictions to fix homes with Helene-related damage.
Sawyer said she is optimistic that the state Department of Commerce will approve a revised request from the county for a total of $719,400, including the unspent $400,000, for the sidewalk project.
The country also has hopes of building sidewalks along a two-mile stretch of U.S. 70 in Swannanoa between Whitson Avenue and Warren Wilson Road. Commissioners in July approved seeking $10 million in grant funds for that project.
Fairview parade
Commissioners also heard but took no action on pleas from a group of Fairview residents that the county approve the community’s holiday parade for this year.
Residents organized the first edition of the parade in December 2024, less than three months after Helene hit, as a way to build community spirit after the storm took several lives and caused extensive property damage in Fairview. They held a second parade in December 2025.
Cory Wall, one of the parade organizers, said in an interview before Tuesday’s commissioners meeting that her group has made no formal request to the county to allow a 2026 edition but has heard informally that the county may not approve one. The parade was held on Charlotte Highway, an NCDOT road that is numbered U.S. 74A.
Marissa Pack, whose mother and father died in Helene, told commissioners that parade organizers had worked with state and local officials to put on last year’s parade safely and would do the same this year at no cost to the county.
“We put extensive planning into safety, traffic control, law enforcement, insurance, participant organization and minimizing the amount of time 74A was affected,” she said, and previous editions of the parade demonstrated that it can be “organized responsibly, operated efficiently and completed with minimal disruption” to traffic.
“All of us have endured so much with Helene and this parade for us is about hope, it’s about community coming together and seeing each other again,” resident Jackie Oerther told commissioners.
County Attorney Curtis Euler said after the meeting that he is unaware of county government making any decision to either allow or not allow the parade.
State law reserves most authority over state-owned roads to NCDOT but says local governments may regulate “the use of highways by processions or assemblages.”
However, a state rule bans parades on state roads outside incorporated municipalities. Fairview is unincorporated. But, state rules are supposed to be based on authority granted by state law.
East Fork, recycling and crime cameras
Commissioners also:
–Approved a $21,000 economic development incentive for Asheville-based East Fork Pottery, dependent on its plans to add 40 employees and invest $2.5 million in an expansion.
–Approved a pilot program funded by a state grant to institute garbage recycling at four apartment complexes in Asheville and unincorporated parts of the county. Recycling is currently not a required service for multi-family housing in the county.
–Without comment, removed from their agenda a proposed budget amendment that would give $290,000 to the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office. At least some of the money would apparently be used for automatic license plate readers or similar cameras.
Documents commissioners were to consider Tuesday give few details. They say the money would be used for the county’s contract for the current fiscal year with Axon Fusus, a provider of the cameras and software used in law enforcement, and a “Camera Project” at the sheriff’s office’s Illegal Gun Reduction and Narcotics Task Force.
The use of similar cameras by the Asheville Police Department this year has been a source of controversy. The Sheriff’s Office already operates a variety of license plate readers and surveillance cameras, according to several media accounts.
More
Video of Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting is available here and supporting documents are here. Commissioners’ next formal meeting is at 5 p.m. Oct. 20 at 200 College St. in downtown Asheville.