Jessica Webb
editor@thesmokymountaintimes.com
North Carolina Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-119, Swain), spoke before Swain County Board of Commissioners during their first meeting of the year on Tuesday morning, Jan. 3. This was also the second meeting of the newly elected board. He encouraged the board to make a list of financial requests and criticized the previous board and the Bryson City Town Board of Aldermen declining an invitation last summer to take part in an effort to consolidate the county fire departments.
“If you’ve got a request for the budget, please do not do what the last sitting board of commissioners did, which was nothing,” Clampitt began.
He pointed to the direct funding he secured in the 2022 budget for a new HVAC system at the Swain County Indoor Recreation Center and funding for a new parking lot and lighting at the Smoky Mountain Event Center. He also brought funding for projects at Island Park and sidewalks on Main Street for the town.
Moving on to the respond to the letter, he pressed the new board to be open for discussion.
“We need to sit down and talk about public safety in Swain County because,” he said, saying they need to address the future needs of the county. He said he’s in a unique position in the House to address these needs.
The letter he was referring to was sent back in July by the town and county declining an invitation to attend a meeting with Clampitt. This was after the representative sent an email invitation outlining his goal to consolidate Swain County’s fire departments with a vision for a fire station/public safety building, a state-of-the-art three-story building that would serve as a command center and include features like a commercial kitchen and laundry.
The response letter listed reasons for not supporting the idea, including the fact town recently purchased property for a new fire station and that each volunteer fire department operates independently.
Clampitt left after he presented to go to a meeting in Haywood County.
On Tuesday, County Manager Kevin King said the feeling was the effort would better serve the county if it were grassroots effort from the fire department volunteers coming up not coming down from the state and county.
On the topic of requesting funding, King said the climate is very different in Raleigh 4 years ago, or prior to the pandemic and American Rescue Plan funds that has become available.
“We’ve never issued request for money from the state because they’ve always been broke,” King said.
The prior board did ask for funding for the middle school, he said. The biggest project right now is still the school. He added the funds can’t be used for operational expenses.
Chairman Kevin Seagle suggested the board members brainstorm about what they want to request.
County ranking
In other topics, Clampitt said he’ll do what he can about addressing how Swain County was recently determined to be a Tier 2 county by North Carolina Department of Commerce —up from its usual spot as Tier 1 or most economically distressed. This will make it difficult to qualify for grant and other help from the state.
“There is no appeal process at this time my mentioning it to Corbin and the other representatives is we’re going to take a look at this during the next general assembly,” he said.
To reach Rep. Clampitt, you can call him on his cell at (828) 736-6222 or email mikeclampitt119@gmail.com.