I can’t believe that the problems that Buncombe County has brought on itself. First is that they are taking $4.7 million from the school budget, which is a huge no-no.
Our schools are below grade in all categories, so that money is needed to help out area children.
An article recently stated that affordability for Asheville middle-income people/workers is one of the worst in the country. That is not good.
One other problem with Buncombe County is that they do not check on companies that do or propose to have business with the county. For example, FCC Environmental trash company has had thousands of complaints filed on them from the residents of Florida about their service. Now my area’s pickup day is Wednesday, and as of this writing, it has been sitting outside for three days. They have been called about this. It appears to me that the county is more worried about the lost tourist dollars because of the storm. They are complaining about the shortage.
I think they should worry about getting the money for the schools back to normal and luring big companies to relocate here. I’m not an expert on this, but being known as a tourist town does not pay the bills because of low wages and the rising cost of living here.
I think the storm might have hurt the chances of ever achieving the goals needed to improve our living standards.
— Leonard Nickerson
Swannanoa
