Feb 20: Public Water Forum
Tonight, Mountain Voices Alliance will host a free multimedia forum focusing on the current Asheville/Buncombe County water issue.
The forum will be held from 6:30-9 p.m. at Jubilee!, 46 Wall St. in downtown Asheville. The event will allow the community and a panel of speakers to discuss an effort underway in Raleigh that could possibly remove control of the water system from the City of Asheville.
The event comes on the heels of a bill introduced last spring by N.C. Rep. Tim Moffitt (R – Buncombe) that would have taken local control of Asheville’s water system away from the city and placed it into the hands of an independent authority.
Moffitt later modified the bill into a study and now a committee is examining the operation of the current water system to determine whether it should be surrendered to an outside agency. The committee will meet at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher on Feb. 23 to take public comment.
An invitation to the panel was extended to Rep. Moffitt as well as to Rep. Chuck McGrady of Henderson County and both have said they will attend.
Other panel members include:
Patsy Keever, N.C. Rep. (D-Buncombe)
David Gantt, Chairman, Buncombe County Commission (via video due to previous engagement)
Jan Davis, Asheville City Council member
Joe Minicozzi, Executive Director, Asheville Downtown Association
Katie Hicks, Assistant Director, Clean Water for North Carolina
Susan Kask, Ph.D. Economics, Warren Wilson College
Barry Summers, Public-Interest Activist, ashevillewater.blogspot.com
Marc Hunt, Asheville City Council member
The forum is being supported by the following: Asheville Brewers Alliance, Asheville Downtown Association, Asheville GreenWorks, Asheville PARC, Clean Water for NC, Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods (CAN), Lynch Graphics, RiverLink, WENOCA Sierra Club, WNC Alliance, West Asheville Watch, Councilman Cecil Bothwell, Councilman Chris Pelly, Councilman Gordon Smith, and Buncombe County Commissioner Holly Jones.
For more information, call Elaine Lite at 828-255-8537.