Jessica Webb
editor@thesmokymountaintimes.com
During a special called session Thursday, June 23, Swain County Board of Commissioners closed out the 2021-2022 with budget amendment 6 totaling $1,990,650. In other actions, the board made appointments to several committees.
Being the end of the fiscal year, there were several funds included in the amendment which included expenses such as extra allocations to emergency services and insurance and increased revenue from register of deeds. The largest budget item includes was $500,000 for repairs to be made to the Swain County High School track.
“A contract has been let for $162,000 for the initial paving of the track, and another company will come in and put a top coating on it, which will be another quarter million,” said Kevin King, county manager. “I put in a half million. We probably won’t use it all before June 30, but I wanted to be careful and budget the whole project.”
Also Thursday, the board met in closed session for about 45 minutes to discuss property acquisition and personnel with no decisions made.
During discussions, King reported the county received a grant it applied to through Dogwood Health Trust to help plan for how to allocate the opioid settlement funding, with the first payment in the settlement of $200,000 to arrive shortly and go into a reserve fund. The county will receive approximately $1.8 million over the next two decades. In a related topic, King recommended the board decline a request to give Hope Springs, a Christian recovery program for men, $500, given the need to keep church and state separate.
Commissioner Danny Burns shared news from the broadband committee, including that three providers have applied for GREAT grants with the possibility of up to $8 million being awarded. The Starlink program that provided free satellite internet to students is set to expire in July.
In other news, Commission Chairman Ben Bushyhead said the county is working toward solutions for workforce housing.
“We’ve got to do something because we’re losing people and people are not coming in because they can’t find housing,” he said.
Commissioner Kevin Seagle said, “I think some of this is going to fix itself, with a decrease in nightly rentals there will be people who will turn them back into long term rentals.”
He himself has done that and said he thinks others will as well as the bump in pandemic tourism has waned.
On new housing, however, he said it would be hard for anybody to build right now given how expensive construction materials are.
The next regular meeting of the commissioners will be Thursday, July 14 at 6 p.m. at the Swain County Administration Building (50 Main Street), third floor auditorium
Nominations to
several boards
Commissioners made the following appointments and reappointments to committees on June 23.
Board of Equalization and Review
Bob Miller
Broadband Advisory Committee
Juliet Kastorff
Melanie McCullough
Mark Tyson
Dangerous Dog Review Board
Tom Cunningham
Jennifer Thomasson
Misty Tabor
Jack Walls
Erosion and Sediment Control
Harold Collins
Gunner Vasquez
Human Services Advisory Board
Randall Castor
Bruce Riddle
Melissa Barker
Michael Smith
Jessica Watkins
Allison Porter
Mitch Carson
Brandon Sutton
Heather Parton
Misty Tabor
Juvenile Crime Prevention Council
Tanner Lawson
Kim Castano
Justin Greene
Misti Jones
Kevin King
Cally Elliott
Mark Pilon
Marianna Black Library Board
Nancy Gibson
Ellen Snodgrass
Amy Vazquez
Region A Aging Council
Kate Welch
TDA
Cheryl Taylor
Patti Jo Taylor