Buncombe County is settling in for the long haul of storm recovery. On Tuesday, the county’s Board of Commissioners unanimously approved establishing a dedicated Helene Recovery Office to oversee hurricane recovery–related projects over the next five years.
Six employees will staff the office, including a lead recovery officer, three project managers, and two financial administrators. The team will help carry out Buncombe’s Helene Recovery Plan, with efforts including landslide remediation, park reconstruction, and infrastructure upgrades at county facilities.
At a briefing meeting prior to the vote, Jeremiah LeRoy, Buncombe’s sustainability officer, said existing county staff had been handling those responsibilities to date but needed more support to handle the complexities of contracting projects and piecing together recovery funds. The recovery plan outlines 114 different projects, with potential funders including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, North Carolina Emergency Management, insurance agencies, and grantmaking nonprofits.
The eventual cost of this work to the county remains unclear. Although commissioners approved a $14 million budget amendment that included salaries and benefits for the Helene Recovery Office, the document didn’t break out those expenses from other Helene-related projects.
Job listings for the five new staffers approved through the budget amendment weren’t available on Tuesday. A job listing for the lead recovery officer, which county leaders approved in June along with the fiscal year 2026 budget, set a pay range of roughly $87,000 to $136,000 dependent on experience. Buncombe spokesperson Lillian Govus said that job is filled.
LeRoy told commissioners that Buncombe would work to cover the costs of the new staffers through grant money, much of which includes provisions for administrative expenses. However, he admitted that the funding picture wasn’t yet solid, with many county grant applications still awaiting decisions.
“It’s important to note that there are still a lot of unknowns,” said LeRoy. “Ultimately, the county may end up incurring some cost for these positions, but the work is critical and it needs to happen.”
Commissioner Terri Wells pressed County Manager Avril Pinder about Buncombe’s plans to cover those expenses if grant funding doesn’t materialize, noting that the county had already been making hard choices around its budget in light of reduced tax revenues post-Helene.
“The backup plan will be in the future,” Pinder responded. “The part I wanted to make sure that you understood is if something were to happen, it would be a backstop on the county.”
Govus said the lead recovery officer is scheduled to start work in November. That person will work to fully staff the office by the end of the year.
Other tidbits
- David Sweat, Buncombe’s director of health and human services, warned that county-administered nutrition benefits programs could be disrupted due to the ongoing federal government shutdown. Both SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and WIC, the Women, Infants, and Children program, will lose support at the end of October if Congress can’t agree to reopen the government. The programs are funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “This [shutdown] seems a little different than some of the rest in the past, so at this point, we don’t really know what the impacts will be,” Sweat told the board.
- Commissioners reappointed Greg Phillips and Gabriel Quesinberry to three-year terms on the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment while replacing member Katherine Morosani with Mark Diaz. David Barley, William Belt, Wesley Greene, and Carol McCrory were named as alternate members. The quasi-judicial body makes decisions on important county development issues such as zoning variances, subdivision variances, and special use permits.
- The board unanimously approved a road closure on Charlotte Highway for the Fairview Holiday Parade on Saturday, Dec. 13. Organizer Cory Wall said the event started as a way to bring the area together after Hurricane Helene. While it took place last year on the A.C. Reynolds High School campus, she said moving it to the main road would be deeply meaningful to the community.
- Ellis Matheson, the county’s public health director, encouraged people to consider vaccinations against COVID-19, flu, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). She hoped to avoid a repeat of last year’s particularly severe flu season, when 19 Buncombe residents died of flu-associated illness.
Every first and third Tuesday, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners meets at 200 College St., Room 326, in downtown Asheville, beginning at 5 p.m. The next meeting will take place Tuesday, Nov. 4. See the full recording and agenda of the Oct. 21 meeting.
