Spruce Pine Town Manager Daniel Stines reported that the town has been putting in new water lines to restore pressure to residents of Sullins Branch at a recent town council meeting.
“The Public Works team mad a lot of progress in the last few weeks,” Stines said.
The town manager said the team had to clear 800 feet of forest to put in the new line.
Satellite annexations
The Spruce Pine Council voted to ask state authorities for more flexibility in satellite voluntary annexations.
The resolution approved by the council addresses “satellite” annexation, where the property in question
does not adjoin the town. State law places an arbitrary limit on how much satellite annexation a town can perform, and Spruce Pine is asking remove that limit.
“We are restricted in annexing, even voluntarily annexing, property that is not contiguous once we get to a 10 percent cap,” Stines said.
Stines noted that even with this resolution, the cap will remain in place unless the state legislature decides to remove it.
Housing in Grassy Creek
The council discussed a proposed housing development in Grassy Creek.
The potential new housing has been suggested by the Chief Cares project, a nonprofit program seeking to bring new housing to Western North Carolina.
“That’s the proposed housing development to be part of the Mountain Community Health project for land that they bought from the Phillips family,” Stines said.
Stines said this project is different from those constructed by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“So it’s basically a program to bring workforce housing as opposed to say HUD-type housing. So it’s not subsidized housing, it’s just more affordable housing.”
Council member Wayne Peight asked if the area has as much subsidized housing as it needs, saying that while he is not opposed to workforce housing projects, he doesn’t want people who need subsidized housing to be forgotten.
“We have four (subsidized housing neighborhoods),” council member Rocky Buchanan said. “And they’re not 100 percent utilized.”
FEMA delays
Stines gave the council an update on struggles with Hurricane Helene (downgraded to a tropical storm after slowing down over land) recovery.
Stines noted that delays in passing a federal budget has made recovery especially difficult in recent weeks.
“FEMA’s been more or less closed,” he said.