Latest / APD Pod Squad / Episode 7; Helene Recovery, October 31, Mayor Esther Manheimer

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Episode 7; Helene Recovery, October 31, Mayor Esther Manheimer · APD Pod Squad

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad, Helena Relief recovery, information and conversation.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Joining me in a moment is actual mayor Esther Mannheimer.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Thursday, October 31st, Halloween, and day 34 of the emergency response and recovery effort.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We emphasize the date because the information is constantly changing, and mostly in a good way.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So once again, today's date is Thursday, October 31st, which might not be the same as when you are listening.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, for the most urgent, up-to-date, complete information from the city of Asheville, go to AshevilleNC.gov slash Helene.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: That site is constantly being updated.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Also want to make sure you like and follow the Facebook page for the Asheville Police, Asheville City Government, and Buncombe County Government for the latest.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the two hottest topics remain to be storm debris and the water system.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the water.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this water is not safe for drinking from the tap or brushing teeth and the like.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: You just don't want to get it in your mouth.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Water must be vigorously boiled for at least one minute before consumption if you choose to do that.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: The water is safe, of course, for flushing toilets.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's also safe for laundry and showering.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do not swallow water while showering, but that's based on your level of comfortability.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: We do laundry and shower with it at my house with no ill effects.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it dries the skin a little bit, but with me, I was known to swim in the Erie Canal growing up, which is probably one of the more polluted bodies of water in the country.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So a little discoloration and extra chlorine doesn't bother me in the least.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: But if it bothers you, there are a number of community care stations where you have access to clean showers and laundry.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're set up across Buncombe County, 7 a.m.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: to 7 p.m.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: daily, offering hot showers, laundry, Wi-Fi bathrooms, changing stations, water, and meals.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: All amenities are free to the public.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just bring your own towels and toiletries for showering.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Some of those stations are big lots in the Innsbruck Mall on Tunnel Road.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: That one is not ADA compliant.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: The rest on the list are ADA accessible for showers and restrooms.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you can find them at AC Reynolds High School, Ingalls at 225 Charlotte Highway, the At Home Store, the parking lot there, Brevard Road, that's the old Kmart, Buncombe County Sports Park, Bethel United Methodist on Riceville Road, the Owen Pool Comfort Station on Stone Drive, Ingalls 2319 U.S.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Highway 70, and Morgan Hill Baptist Church on Barnardsville Highway.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: As for what's being done with the water, the turbidity curtains were installed this week at the North Fork Water Reservoir, allowing crews to treat water turbidity in sections, then dosing an aluminum sulfate and caustic soda to treat that water.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: To get into the weeds here, the turbidity level as of Monday was 23.3 down from 26 last week.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: If everything goes well this week, with the second round of in-reservoir treatment, the turbidity level should drop again.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: So what is the target number?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, water crews are aiming for between 1.2 to 2.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got a ways to go.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: As far as the debris collection, that is also a ways to go situation, but it has begun.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I really can't tell you how soon your neighborhood is going to be uh a target for the debris collection crews.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: However, they are going to take more than one turn around the city, hitting these streets multiple times.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if for some reason they come down your street, you don't get your stuff at the curb yet, and you're panicking, don't they will be back.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned at the beginning, we are joined today by the mayor of the city of Asheville, Esther Mannheimer.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for having me.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's my pleasure.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when you thought about running for city council back in, I guess it would have been 2008.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: 2009.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: 2009.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you were a council person for four years, and then the mayor now for over 10, you couldn't have possibly imagined, nobody here could.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: The events of the past month, and then of course, your role within that in the days to follow.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: No, I absolutely not.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I, you know, when I first ran for office back in the days when Jan Davis was on council and folks like that, I mean, our biggest issue was zoning.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's still a big issue.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: But that, you know, I I was a land use attorney and I I thought we'd just pretty much be talking about zoning issues.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and some people forget that part.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: You just mentioned your day job.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So when something like this happens, this sort of a disaster, this sort of a catastrophe, and and people like yourself and and other city officials are thrust into the limelight, and all the interviews you've had to do with local, state, national, international publications and media, they kind of forget you have a day job too.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like this has become all consuming, you as the representative of Asheville.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you tell me how much you want to talk about this, but uh, yes, I do have a day job.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a I'm a lawyer, I'm a partner in a law firm that's just across the park from City Hall.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I want to tell you, Jeremy Knighton, uh who's obviously in our fire department and running our EOC, he trained all of us before this happened.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they rewrote all of the emergency operation procedures.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of that came out of um the water outage in 2022 and you know, taught us what our roles are supposed to be, which for elected officials is basically stay out of the EOC.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, you need to be out there communicating with people in a time of a of a crisis.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I really credit the city staff and in particular Jeremy just getting us ready for something.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't know what it was gonna be.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't know if it was gonna be a hurricane or or or what, you know, you don't know what emergency you're planning for.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: You're just playing for every emergency.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And when this hurricane happened, I mean, we all have our story.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Where were we?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: We couldn't talk to anyone, we couldn't communicate, our phone didn't work.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, some people were fighting for their dear lives, some people were okay, but didn't know what was, you know, none of us knew what was going on.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't know what was happening on the other side of town.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just get our arms around it.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, I managed to get to my law office, which is I just said downtown, and it had internet empower, interestingly.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so um the city manager, Deborah Campbell, cut loose a team for me, which is Kim Miller, who you know, and Dan Ferris, and basically just said, go.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because what was starting to happen was I was getting a million requests to go on this, to go on Fox News, to go on MSNBC, to go on CNN, to go, to go.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: They everybody wanted because they could see it all.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: We couldn't, but they could see what was happening to us.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew because Jeremy Knighton taught us um that my role was to be in the lane of communications.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I um with Kim and Dan, we basically set up like we're sitting in a closet right now in your studio while my studio was standing in front of my desk in my law office, and we just we just went to town and we we talked to anybody and everybody all day long, whoever would talk to us, so we could get the word out that we needed help, and it was serious.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and honestly, that was the first time I was seeing all the footage because when I would sit in front of the computer screen and wait to be loaded on to whatever show it was, they were showing footage of Asheville and Buncombe County in Western North Carolina that I hadn't seen yet.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in some cases, they probably knew more than you did, and they're asking you the questions.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, and I'm I'm sitting there watching this footage, and then they're bringing me on their show, and I'm speechless because I just saw, you know, Swannanoa, or I just saw, and I hadn't, I hadn't been out there yet.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that was in the early days, what happened during this.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and occasionally I'd go over to the EOC or I'd go, you know, staff would have to brief me, tell me what's going on so I could do my best job in in communicating.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, we started getting all kinds of folks that wanted to come here and see it, from the president to the vice president to the speaker of the house, you know, all all the different federal and state officials that came here to see on the ground, which I think is really important for them to see it.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Chief Lamb has actually spoken about the uh the EOP, the emergency operations plan, which you kind of referred to with Jeremy Knighton.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh very fortuitous that that had recently been kind of reinvigorated and laid out because you had an opportunity with along with the rest of our city leadership to see that, kind of know that, and be ready for this, which, you know, if it weren't for the water disaster of a couple of Christmases ago, we don't know if that would have been done, if there had been the urgency.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to say.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It may have been, uh it may have been done, but everyone here was ready.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: It may not have seemed like it to the people that were suffering because they want they want the fix, you know, they want everything back to the way it was, but that's not possible.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the best we can do is just react and help as much as we can.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you certainly played a large part in that.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think for the folks that were completely devastated, their homes gone, they needed rescuing by one of our one or a whole team of our people.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's very hard to say we've ever done enough for someone like that.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I will say, I, you know, I know our first responders have been, they've been so thoughtful with the people that they've helped, uh, you know, doing things they didn't have to do, like helping them salvage some photographs or or just something personal for that person because they're so devastated.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think one of the things that always impresses me about our police and fire and other first responders are just how they're able to empathize with a person who is suffering and thinking about what they're gonna need to help them get through that.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm glad that we're at least able to provide that for folks who really, I mean, really there's no perfect way to restore everything they lost and and say, well, whoa, we made you whole and everything's fine now.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's obviously not not gonna happen for that, for those individuals.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: But for for folks who have been through this experience with us and were, you know, not so traumatized that they're all consumed with their trauma, which is obviously gonna happen for for some people.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: But for those other folks who are able to sort of watch this response, at least from where I sit, the response has been amazing.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: They've said the city has done an amazing job.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And when they talk about that, they mean the people who work for the city of Asheville, just watching everything they're doing from people who are putting their life on the line to people who are handing out water at a water station, or, you know, you know, people whose jobs are completely reassigned in a moment of this catastrophe, and they're just doing it.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Mayor Esther Mannheimer joins me right now.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the days and weeks and now months following the devastation of Helene.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And with all the stories of tragedy come those of triumph and the heartwarming stories of lives being saved and in some cases just neighbors helping neighbors.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's one of the things that I've come away with that a little bit, is Asheville as a town, as a city.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: We have our issues.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's been there for the world to see in many cases.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we disagree politically.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's clashes, but it seems like we all came together for this.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: What have you seen?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the things that you've seen.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, to me, that is an overwhelming, amazing, positive piece of this.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I, you know, I I'm the mayor, but of course, I'm like everybody else.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: The first people I need to check on are my parents.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so I um made it to my mom's house, and her neighbors had already checked on her.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: They had already made sure she had what she needed.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we are a community like this.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's just amazing to me.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I um I was visiting my sister, and uh, she also lives here, and she her her block had decided that they were gonna get together every day at five o'clock in somebody's yard.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: They picked one person's yard and they're all bringing their lawn chairs and they're gonna sit around a circle every day at five.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I was there on the first day, and they were all wearing name tags.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it was it was the sweetest thing.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, I just love how we've come together.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, but then there's other people.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I met a guy operating a forklift at the Wesley Grant Center to help deliver water brought in by the organization Wine to Water.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he had lost his house in Old Fort and he was there operating a forklift.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I guess on the one hand, I sort of thought, well, of course every community would come together in the time of crisis.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's, you know, to be expected.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I was talking to someone who went through a big hurricane in South Florida, and he was telling me how his experience there was so different than it was here.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then I was a little more doggy dog in that community, and not, you know, nothing like the flush brigade in Asheville, where volunteers are randomly showing up at people's houses who need help flushing their toilets.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing like that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I do think that's unique and special about us.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh, you know, there's a phrase about hardy mountain folk.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard that term obviously used.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this is your adopted hometown, like so many people.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you've been here a long, long time.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: So you said adopted, yeah, because I'm right.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it I've only been here since 1988.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're right.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh, you know, if you ask somebody born here, like my wife, there's locals and there's natives.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we both get credit, the locals and the natives, yeah, but the natives have a little more, you know, they they can lay claim to a little more, but we all love it, you know, and we all are here for reasons.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so you obviously love it here and feel the connection here.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not to go all Barbara Walters, but have you had a chance to have a good cry?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know I have.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, so not only have I had a good cry, but embarrassingly I had it in front of more than a thousand people, which was that the vigil we held Tuesday night uh a week ago.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's cathartic.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh let's hope that that's what it is.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I was a little embarrassed.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't planning on sobbing uh in front of everybody, but you never plan for that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: It comes when it you don't expect it.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I you know, honestly, when I started, you know, we decided we needed to have a vigil and we started planning it.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: I really wasn't sure what to expect.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's not exactly a playbook for a catastrophe of this level for there's there's a playbook for the emergency operations and the procedures, but there's not a playbook for a community in terms of its sort of spiritual response to a catastrophe.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so we decided we wanted to have this vigil and organized it.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I and we put out the word and we didn't know if anybody would come.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I I, you know, we had a city council meeting first, and so I walked out of City Hall, it's a packed square, and there were over a thousand people there, and I just was so overwhelmed.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh clearly we needed something.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I just was amazed.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I anyway, so yes, I spent a that was a lot of crying.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it won't be the last.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm sure it won't be the last gathering, and it's something we need.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: We all need each other right now.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: I um was taking a friend, I have a friend who lives in Garan Creek, a couple we've known for a very long time.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Very hard hit area.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's he, you know, he was telling me because he he's pretty deep in there, and so they were cut off.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Only helicopters could get in.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he's a real doer.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: He had he stepped up and and was helping.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's that in that community, they just had to kind of basically organize their own governing system and figure out how to take care of those who needed the most help and um get resources in there.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: So my husband is a native, by the way, and he's a cross-country coach at Inca High School.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's also the wrestling coach there.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and long story short, my buddy um Scott, he drives a school bus.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: So he he I was taking him down to Salisbury so he could drive the kids back.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we had a good long time in the car, and he was telling me all about what happened.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, to your point, kind of the therapeutic crying piece of it, you gotta talk about it.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that that's an area where they had Craig Town and 13 people died.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so he was telling me, telling me all about his experience.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: But then he was telling me he he drives a bus for Fairview Elementary, and he's got K through fifth graders, and he's his name, he's he's bus driver Mr.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Scott.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's what they call him, Mr.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Scott.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he called 99.9 radio station after he got cell service, and he was telling me the story about how he called them to he wanted to call out to all his kids on the bus.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, sure, you can go ahead and do that.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he named every single kid in order of how he picks them up on their route, and he said a little something about them.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy, and they were all crying and he was crying.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I I'm glad that we're able to have these personal experiences with each other because I think it's it's so important to kind of battle through what this has been like for people.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had my cry uh the other night watching the concert for Carolina.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I know.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I it was it was great up until uh I I should say I was great, up until James Taylor sang uh fire and rain, kind of started it.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, kind of I'm like, all right, hold together.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's in my house by myself, so I could go ahead if I wanted to.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: But then he got to Carolina on my mind.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that was it.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then everything just kind of flowed back.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the money raised there is gonna help a lot of people.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh$25 million approximately, and probably more because they'll keep merchandising and things of that nature.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And money is something we're going to need, which is probably one of the reasons that you have accommodated almost every interview with politicians and media is to keep Asheville's name out there.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Asheville Mayor Esther Mannheimer joins me now, and one of the uh big name officials, obviously, you flew on Marine One, and you got to see the devastation from up high with our leadership of the United States.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: So Asheville's leader, country's leader, both looking down below.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what did it look like from up there?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so I met the president and the governor um in uh Greenville Spartanburg, and we flew a Marine One.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, I've never been on a helicopter before.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So Oh, not any helicopter.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Never I've never have you been on a helicopter?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I have, but not one that large.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um well, it's a little cramped on the inside, I will say, but it does have two rotors.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the so we we flew from there up over Brevard north and started on the far part of the west part of the city.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, we flew, we came into Bunkham County kind of on the western part of the city near Inca High School.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then we flew across through this around the downtown, and then we went um, so this is Wednesday after the storm.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: So the storm's Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, we're Wednesday.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I had not yet been to Swannanoa.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had been in the River Arts District, I had been in Biltmore Village, I had seen that, but I had not.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we flew over um Swannanoa to Black Mountain, so you could see, I mean, the worst hit area from where we are east.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: I can't speak, um, of course, Barnardsville and Fairview and Gare Creek, terrible, terrible.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we did not fly over those sections, so I couldn't see that, but I hadn't seen Swannanoa yet, which is where you have so many houses that were completely underwater or broke away and and uh floated down the river.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that was just devastating to see.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And from there, we flew south at an angle over Chimney Rock and over Lake Lure.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you could see the town of Chimney Rock in Lake Lure, just the debris field in in Lake Lure.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was shocking.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then we flew down over Polk County and back and back.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: So uh you know, I think flying over it, you get like we could see some of the parts of the parkway that have calved off, some of the roadways that have calved off.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you can see things that you can't uh easily see from the ground.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: You do miss, I think, some of the some of the things on the ground that are just so catastrophic that you can just you can it's harder to see from the air, but it did give um a sense of the scope of the damage uh that we experienced.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, and you you may have had a chance to take advantage of this.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the Memphis Bell has been here a few times?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: The B-27, the bomber has been here at the airport and given uh tours and and so I was able to take one and it flew relatively low.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I just remember seeing, you know, at that point the beauty of the mountains.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't imagine the perspective that you saw, which was probably if you looked in the distance, you still saw the beauty of the mountains, but right below and where you were seeing was the devastation of the mountains.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you could see um I think one of the harder things too for us to see here is to see if that you can see from the air the landslides.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I think we've had documented in the whole area.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Areas, something like 1600 landslides.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: Some of those we'll probably never see.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: They're remote.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but some of them obviously have taken out so many of our roads and homes.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: So and the president talked about serving other major disasters by marine one.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: So in the times when there have been huge forest fires and things like that, that's apparently the way he does it.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then also because it's at the time, you know, we were we weren't even a full week out and we only had one functioning highway, he could not come in here with his, you know, he full continues.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he can't have that in here.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we're now at one month since the storm and doing our best resume some sense of normalcy on so many levels.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what that looks like varies from person to person.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Some lost homes, some lost loved ones, some lost their business, and of course, others their jobs.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: For better or worse, Asheville is a tourist-based economy.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what is usually our busiest time of the year, the fall, right now, we we can't host visitors with no real idea when that might happen again.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Already we're seeing things canceled, like the much beloved Warren Haynes Christmas jam, which is scheduled for December every year.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And past that holiday season is the slow season of January, February.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's a large gap of time, even if it's before then.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: People are going to wonder where do we go from here?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because the city of Asheville doesn't have an unlimited budget, doesn't have a we can't just write a check and replace a lot of these things.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So where are we going?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Who are we talking to?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the the funding resources to help us get back on our feet?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you've kind of laid out the complexity of it from an economic standpoint.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we obviously have businesses that are totally shuttered right now.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: They need potable water.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: They can't open some some hotels are not open at all unless it's to unless it's to um people that have come in to work the disaster.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're just not open at all.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of restaurants that have elected not to open.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: We have others that are trying to struggle through with bringing in their own potable water.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: We also have, I mean, as a barrier to tourism, we have a lot of the amenities that tourists like that are closed.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, are can you go mountain biking?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Can you go kayaking?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Can you, you know, these outdoor recreation.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Zip one, any of those.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: You can't, you know, so many of those things are completely offline.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, uh one of the biggest draws we've always had historically is the Biltmore State, and it's still not uh reopened.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're targeting early November.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully that happens.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: But when you look at our local businesses, and that's really kind of what makes Asheville so special and unique as a place to visit and to live, frankly, is how many locally owned restaurants we have and shops and breweries, you know, you name it, all the things that we love and enjoy.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: There are a variety of issues there.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Some have buildings that were devastated.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so they've got a we've got a whole issue around rebuilding.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: We have others that are fine, but they can't function and they need to kind of limp through this down period and not fold.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have been trying to figure out the best way to help these businesses.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: The structure that's set up for a disaster like this is to bring in the small business administration.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: The SBA comes in, they offer loans.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we need the Congress to go back in and continue its funding, but we encourage everyone to apply for SBA loans who want to pursue that avenue.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Mountain Bizworks has stood up an alternative.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: They have, they will loan small businesses money.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's got a little less paperwork.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, some people say it's a little more nimble, easier, uh, but doesn't they offer as much funding.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the legislature just passed last week legislation that gave an additional$50 million in the that kind of loan fund.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, we didn't see grants through that because a lot of businesses are looking for grants.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think with COVID happening, a lot of businesses are like, where's the PPP?
• 26:02
  unknown: Right.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's not, you know, that's that was a one-time deal with COVID and that doesn't exist this time, but we are looking for grant opportunities.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: So the city council met last week and we freed up just under a million dollars for small businesses.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: The county will meet Friday, and I believe they will do something similar.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we have, you know, folks like Mountain Bizworks that are trying to fundraise for grant funds, as well as, you know, the the Arts, the Arts AVL and the Chamber and the T T DA, the Tourism Development Authority.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: There are lots of folks trying to address this problem, specifically the problem of needing basically bridge money to get through this down period.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, I think we're hearing a lot about folks that work in this economy, the kind of gig workers, they're relocating, they're leaving, or the the employers had to lay everyone off.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, they're, you know, one of the questions we have is how easy will it be for people to reopen once they do and fill those all those jobs?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: To say it'll be just like it was, I think is not not an accurate statement.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm hopeful it we can try to keep things um held together during this period uh before we before we're fully back on our feet.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Two of the areas in Asheville City limits that were obviously devastated, that were big business uh for local businesses and tourism, the River Arts District, which has obviously had a huge resurgence in the past 10 years or so.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just the the development down there.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's been it's been great to watch it grow.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then of course, Biltmore Village, which has been there for much, much longer, uh, was also a big victim of the 2004 floods that we had from Ivan and Francis.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: So people are now going to question the validity, the the viability of those two areas building back again when you know that maybe another something like this might happen again.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: What are your thoughts on that?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's really tough because you know, some of these businesses were lucky to have insurance and they're able to rebuild.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was talking to um the owners of the Bohemian hotel, which by the way was built to current flood stage, but they still saw flooding halfway up their first floor.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: So they're busy, you know, getting ready uh to reopen.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um same with uh corner kitchen, talk to those folks.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, these are businesses that have insurance and they're able to to make some to get folks in there, muck out, clean up, do all the things you got to do.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: There are other businesses that are in structures that were so severely damaged or or ruined, they don't have insurance.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if they were to rebuild, they because of the amount of damage they sustained, they would have to comply with the current requirements, which is if you see any kind of new structures, they are elevated.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that can be expensive and cost prohibitive.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I think in some cases that will work, in some cases it won't.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, yesterday I was meeting with several property owners down on Thompson Street in the area that sort of sits down below Target, which got heavily hit.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: It runs alongside of Swantanoa.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's more um industrials, not you know, shops and things, but it's you know, it's where you'd get your CrossFit Gym was down there for CrossFit Gym, right?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: Or or you know, it's someone that sells granite countertops or Britton Tilson was down there.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Brother Wolf Animal Rescue.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, so some of these folks got totally wiped out, some are still there, you know, and they're really scratching their heads saying, okay, let's say you rebuilt and you built rebuilt above flood stage or whatever the new flood stage is, can you build a structure that can withstand a storm like that, even if it is elevated?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was a powerful storm that damaged even buildings built above flood stage.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's a real question for these individual owners.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do they want to take a risk like that?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do we really think this isn't going to happen for another thousand years, or is this some kind of something that could happen again to us in two years?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because the the flooding that occurred wasn't um like you see in some areas where it's the water just rises.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, the water was rushing.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I had seen some statistics that it was flowing uh the extent of what would be Niagara Falls.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: And having grown up right next to Niagara Falls, I'm here to tell you that thing moves quick.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the force of that, so even if you were to build something in that and up, that doesn't mean it would survive this type of a flood.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and one of the other things that they uh were pointing out is a lot of times the damage that their building sustained was because something else smashed into it, a train car or another building.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I, you know, I think there's a lot to take into account.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think we want to look at buildings that did well, uh, that even though they flooded, they they did relatively well.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we want to look at what absolutely didn't work at all and take that into account.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, to some degree, it's up to the individuals.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's it whether or not landowners, business owners, right?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: Whether they want to take on that risk.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that that is, I don't begrudge them that decision.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's very, very difficult.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: There are situations, and we're looking at this, that do happen in the face of a hurricane or a massive flooding event where some land clearly becomes not viable for rebuilding.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then the question becomes well, do you buy them out?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how does that work?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Can we just then add them to our parks and greenway infrastructure along the river?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a better use for the property.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's a possibility.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're trying to learn about that.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: It is a program that runs through the state but is federally funded.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then the state works with the local government to do that.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I know there'll be a lot of discussion about whether any properties make sense for that program.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: There are some cities that uh have rivers going through that, which have been established as floodplains that have just decided that is more public space.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right now.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, as you mentioned, you're gonna have landowners, business owners that may have something to say about that.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: But not to put you on the spot, I saw a suggestion yesterday I liked about the River Arts District and an amphitheater down there.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, that's that's a long way away from having that conversation, but I I thought about it for a moment and thought how great that would be if it were to come to be in a music town like this, in an arts town like this, uh, to have something like that where if it did flood, wouldn't be, you know, unrecoverable, it wouldn't be unsolvable.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but once again, you've got all the issues with who owns the land.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: So so an amphitheater actually has been discussed over the years as a as a good use for for a river arts district area and one that might work for Asheville.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't heard that suggestion yet.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: In this Well, it was on Wax, the West Asheville Exchange, and that's all they do all day long is brainstorm.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but I would, I would, I I like what where you're headed.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what I'm because I'm spending a lot of time learning from other communities that have gone through something like this and kind of what they did and and what are some things that we should be thinking about and doing as we come through this.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it it is apparent to me that it it can sometimes be an opportunity to think about new things to do.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I will I will say, um, you know, we did this River Arts District project, the city did, it's called Rad Tip, and it runs from basically the Smoky Park Supper Club area um all the way to Amboy Bridge.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we, you know, we redesigned in that area where we added greenways and roundabouts, bike pads for parking and and actually a lot of stormwater retention ponds and things like that.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the design was to flood.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was designed to flood in an event like this, knowing that the best use for properties along the river are gonna be like carrier park.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and so they obviously sustained quite a bit of damage.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: They need a lot of cleanup.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: But overall, they're still gonna be there.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be able to clean them up and continue to use them as originally intended.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's does go to show, you know, that was some good planning in that area.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: There weren't people's homes there, but you certainly had some older structures from the 60s and 70s and even older that got severely damaged in this flood and that predated the current regulations.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we definitely have our eye on those kinds of changes.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Change is hard, change takes time and money, and it's slow.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the good news is we sort of know what needs to happen, um, and we'll see if if this um catastrophe might not have a little bit of a silver lining and moving those plans forward a little faster.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And as we move forward, we're actually heading into the holiday season now and we're hoping for water.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, obviously, water that we can drink and you know do all those things, uh, hopefully in time for Thanksgiving.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of people would like that.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I know.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been told I'm an eternal optimist.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I don't have any inside information for anyone that's listening right now.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gathering that from anywhere.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that's about a month away, and we're all hopeful uh for what they've been doing.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the work that they did at the North Fork Reservoir a few years ago in 2021, for people that haven't been following as closely, some of that that they did worked.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: It actually saved lives and prevented flooding.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the things that they did then kind of helped us now.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: And now, of course, they're going to need to do more to get the line back online.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: As far as like money for fixing infrastructure like the reservoir for our roads, where does that come from?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I mean, and so it's it's good question.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, you're talking about um, and if people are familiar with Norfolk Reservoir, it's a lot of what we're talking about these days because that's where we have the turbidity problem, why we can't get it.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's about 80% of us get our water spot there.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in the city, and then also we have a lot of customers outside the city.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: So Norfolk is all the way out by Black Mountain.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: It ha all that water has to get treated, it's collected in the reservoir there in this pristine 22,000 acres, and then it normally pristine.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Normally pristine, normally pristine, and it drops into the treatment plant and then it flows into the city, but it's got to come quite a long way, and and it has to go through Swantanoa, which of course was one of the hardest hit areas.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we saw that devastation.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: But we we did a project that was voted on in 2016 and finalized in 2020, where we redid the dam, we built a new spillway from the reservoir.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone can see the pictures of it that we we've shown everybody.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people don't see that stuff because it's all the way up there in the mountains.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: So because when that dam was originally built, it had a very small still spillway.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: And when we did the new spillway, we also took the dam and reinforced it with the earth that we removed to build the spillway.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so we reinforced the dam.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: If we hadn't done that project, the dam had high likelihood that it could have failed.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it would have um, we would have lost the water in the reservoir, our drinking water, and we would have lost the treatment plant because it sits right below the dam.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we we would be looking at a whole different situation than a team that rebuilt those pipes day and night until it was done in about two and a half weeks.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: And just the time to reconstruct a dam and a reservoir and a I don't know what we'd be looking at.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that project, for example, was$37 million, and the way you fund water infrastructure projects typically for a city would be through the fees that you collect for water service.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: So when you look at your water bill, you can see there's a fee for the usage of water, but there's also a capital fee on there, and that's the money that's being used to pay for these kinds of projects.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: But in this catastrophe, we see damage not just to our system, which will be reimbursed by FEMA with a match.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, the state will provide any match needed to rebuild our system, which is not inexpensive.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: But the road infrastructure that around our city, our county, and all of Western North Carolina is billions of dollars to rebuild, bridges and streets.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're learning how this happens.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're we're all taking like a graduate school level class on FEMA and federal disasters and where all this money comes from.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: But we would we should be able to recover a lot of the funds to rebuild uh through these disaster relief programs, we're hopeful.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: But they're they're expensive and they're long.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just doing one bridge project in a city is usually a pretty big undertaking.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and we've got, you know, lots of roads and some bridges that are maintained by the city.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Just so people know out there in the state of North Carolina, a road is either private and somebody privately maintains it, or it is a city road, or it is a state road.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: There are no county roads.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: And even within cities, there are state roads.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of your bigger corridors are state roads.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we all we have to kind of inventory all the ones that are ours and figure out what it's gonna take.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you, you know, I know, like for example, behind the Grove Park Inn on Sunset Mountain, we've had a landslide periodically up there.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: Just one of them can take a long time to fix and a ton of money.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: And there are several just on that mountain alone that I personally saw.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I know we have the this around the city.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it's the scale and size of this is um a little can wake you up at one o'clock in the morning.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Governor Cooper did throw out a pretty big number when he talked about he said this maybe the biggest budgeted reclamation project in the history of the state.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: For a state that's received its share of hurricanes, but on the other side of the state, that's saying something.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: It is because this is such a strange combination of massive flooding and flooding damage, but also catastrophic landslide damage.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got what are all the things that can happen to you in a hurricane?
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we basically hit them all in one hurricane.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll take a look back maybe a year from now and talk again and see where we are.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, good.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like that.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: I hope we have lots of good things to report.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think we're all hoping for a better 2025, and we thank you for your leadership during this.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think our city leaders have a lot to be proud of, uh, both yourself and of course uh the people that act behind the scenes, not just the ones in front of the camera during the press, you know, all those press junkets, uh, but the ones that are working hard behind the scenes in all of our departments, you know, public works and fire and police and everybody over there at City Hall have done really such great work and really unsung.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so thank you for everything you've done and uh thank you for joining me today.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think you you've done a great job of calling out all the folks that are just I mean, they're just setting everything else in their life aside and doing this job 24-7, it feels like.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're sitting right now in the police department, all of our police, all of the police from across the state and everywhere else that have come and joined them, our fire department, all of the fire departments and all first responders that have come from everywhere uh to join them and help in that effort.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, even folks like in public works that have had to get off their chainsaws and cut through every road so people can just get through, you know, all of our parks and rec staff that reassign themselves to become, you know, coordinating, uh providing provisions to everyone in our community that need everything.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's just I've been so proud to see the work everyone has done.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: And at least I don't see a lot of um sitting around and bureaucratically, you know, mulling over what should it's just people are just doing it.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: They're following the, they're following the procedures, they're doing it, and they're working, they're working like crazy.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it's um it, you can tell it's noticeable and people appreciate it.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I know there's always whatever, we live in a place where there's it's you know, it's never perfect, but to me it is, I don't know how we could do this better.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think Asheville's like a Facebook relationship status.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's complicated and uh in so many ways.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: But we kind of we kind of love those complications uh in some ways too.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's kind of it has all the things we go through, we can run the gamut of emotions in a 24-hour cycle in this town from the highs to the lows, and it seems like we've experienced all of them in the past month or so.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think I experience it all the time.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: I get an email where someone's, you know, mad and they say something, and I'll respond to them and and then they'll write me back and they'll be like, okay, well, I you know, I just want you to know I appreciate what you're doing, you know.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, whoa, we we went all the way from mad and now you love me.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I have found that in my years of having complaints uh made about me that the people that you respond to, they don't first of all, they don't expect a response.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, it can change the whole narrative.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's as you have obviously found yourself.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations on 10 years as mayor and and having uh having this be the I don't know, you've mentioned you might not run again.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I I'm not gonna put you on the hot seat there for that, but I'd hate for this to be your your last hurrah.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I've got a little more time in my term, so hopefully, you know, would be it would be sad if December was my last month.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I think a lot of people have seen your leadership and hope you continue for what it's worth.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate it.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: Asheville Mayor Esther Mannheimer, thank you for joining me.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.