GOVERNMENT
Buncombe County homeowners face sticker shock over newly assessed property values
Tax notices with newly assessed property values are now reaching Buncombe County homeowners, causing sticker shock for many, with some increases upward of 100 percent. In the upscale Grove Park/Town Mountain area, former Asheville Mayor Lou Bissette, 82, saw the valuation of his longtime home on Old Toll Road rise from $970,100 to nearly $1.7 million, a 75 percent increase. “This may make me go on to the (retirement) home,” he joked. Suzette Caldwell’s West Asheville home and hair salon soared by 98 percent, from $183,900 to $363,500. “My mouth dropped open so far I had to pick it up,”…
Keep readingHEALTHCARE
Mission Hospital to evaluate leadership’s “capacity and competency,” hires consultant in wake of Immediate Jeopardy
Mission Hospital has hired an outside consultant following its most recent Immediate Jeopardy sanction and committed to federal regulators that it will make sweeping changes, including reevaluating “the capacity and competency” of its leadership and staff, according to its enhanced plan of correction obtained by Asheville Watchdog. Mission leadership promised a number of steps and improvements in the plan required by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services following its third Immediate Jeopardy in less than two years. These include commissioning an analysis on the root causes of its deficiencies in care, “resetting” the hospital’s relationship with CMS, and…
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Answer Man: ‘Radical tree trimming’ by Duke Energy contractors in Weaverville? Why no streetlights for Long Shoals Road?
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: I am curious who is responsible for the cleanup of tree trimming by…
Democracy Watch: I moderated a Democratic District 11 congressional forum. Here’s what the candidates said.
Three days before polls open for early voting ahead of the March 3 primary elections, the five Democratic candidates in North Carolina’s District 11 congressional…
Dogwood Trust moves up public meetings with independent monitor in wake of recurring problems with Mission, HCA
The Dogwood Health Trust — the foundation responsible for enforcing HCA Healthcare’s compliance with the terms of its 2019 purchase of nonprofit Mission Health —…
Answer Man: Why was my voting location changed? Who’s responsible for shoveling snow from sidewalks?
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: Why and by whom am I being assigned a different, less convenient voting…
“Heartbreaking” DOGE cuts stun doctors who signed up for federal program to improve rural health care
CELO COMMUNITY, N.C. — On a 15-degree morning in January, a clinic in this small Yancey County community on the northern edge of Pisgah National…
Asheville has money to plant and preserve trees. Why isn’t it using it?
By the time Asheville officials passed a slate of arboreal protections in 2020, it was clear that the city’s canopy was imperiled. A study the…
Opinion: ‘We’ve got to be more dignified than this!’: Is Tunnel Road sliding into downright scuzziness these days?
In my mind, Tunnel Road in Asheville has always been an area teetering right on the edge of sketchiness, sometimes bordering on scuzz. That comes…
Answer Man: Confusing road markings on Merrimon Avenue? New water meter is in, but it’s not quite as advertised? Monthly water billing on the horizon?
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: On your way to work someday, or sooner, drive northbound on Merrimon Avenue. …
Two deaths, failure to isolate infectious diseases led to Mission’s latest Immediate Jeopardy
An 88-year-old woman recovering from hip surgery at Mission Hospital died after going 13 hours without receiving a needed blood transfusion. Another patient’s heart stopped…
Citing “systemic and recurring patterns” of harm at Mission, CMS rejects hospital’s latest plan of correction, sets new deadline
Citing “systemic and recurring patterns of noncompliance found during previous surveys,” the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services harshly informed Mission Hospital CEO Greg…
Answer Man: How are bears faring in this extreme weather? Why has Beaver Lake been nearly drained?
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: As we all know, early January was unseasonably warm, with temperatures at one…
It’s Groundhog Day. For HCA-owned Mission Hospital and Asheville, it’s déjà vu all over again.
HCA Healthcare took control of Asheville’s nonprofit Mission Hospital seven years ago, on Feb. 1, 2019, but Groundhog Day seems the more appropriate anniversary. As…
Opinion: Do forecasters ‘overhype’ winter storms? This weekend notwithstanding, my recently purchased generator says ‘Yes.’
I hang my head in shame these days. Not because I’ve eaten 227 milk and bread sandwiches over the past week and a half, or…
Ingles’ sales, profits surged as grocery prices soared following pandemic, financial records show
Soaring food prices since the COVID-19 pandemic have fueled the affordability debate, but they’ve also led to a surge in sales and profits for grocery…
Committee to decide future of UNCA woods heavy on insiders, closed to public
A committee dominated by University of North Carolina Asheville insiders will shape the future of the campus’ woods in a process shielded from the public,…
