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The Buncombe County COVID-19 weekly update

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ASHEVILLE, NC – June 28, 2023 – The COVID-19 metrics are on the CDC’s COVID Dashboard. Weekly data indicate:

  • Hospital admissions are at a low level in every county in North Carolina and almost 100% of the counties in the U.S. from the week ending on June 10th
  • About 3% of the provisional deaths in North Carolina were due to COVID-19 during the week ending on June 17th
  • Emergency room visits for COVID-19 are minimal in North Carolina from the week ending on June 17th

Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID outbreaks. The Buncombe & Henderson counties wastewater data for the week ending on June 14th is on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard.

  • The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at a yellow level representing the middle level of 5 groups.
  • The 15-day rate of change of the number of viral gene copies in each water sample is very negative

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants everyone to know that:

  • COVID-19 can affect people differently. Some people have mild symptoms like a cold and others have more severe symptoms like a bad case of the flu. Some effects can be long-lasting.
  • Older adults and immunocompromised people are at a higher risk of developing severe illness and being hospitalized. The CDC recommends that people in these groups get an updated COVID-19 bivalent booster because it gives added protection.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

  • Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines
  • For extra protection, wear an effective medical grade mask
  • People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home
  • People with any COVID symptoms should get tested
  • If you test positive, your doctor may recommend medical treatment

More and more Americans have developed some immunity to COVID-19 from immunizations and previous infection. New variants continue to infect people with the most at-risk groups more susceptible to severe illness.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]


More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

AFM News Hour reports on new county budget

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Buncombe County Commissioners approved a new budget of over 430 million dollars at their meeting of June 20, 2023, the commissioner, and raised charges at the county’s solid waste facilities in hope of encouraging users to better sort their waste for recycling.

The vote to raise the county’s property tax rate to provide increased funding for local school districts was unanimous.

The general fund budget increases the property tax rate by 1 cent to 49.8 cents per $100 of taxable value, or about 2%. The owner of a home valued at $300,000 will pay about fifteen hundred dollars in taxes, roughly $30 more than last year.

Commissioners agreed to the tax hike after hearing complaints by teachers and staff for months during public comment about the difficulties of living on current salaries, but the raises in the new budget won’t meet the demands of those who’ve spoken before the commissioners.

According to a presentation by Budget Director John Hudson, the tax increase will raise an extra $5.1 million over the revenues estimated during the June 6 public hearing on County Manager Avril Pinder’s recommended budget.

Hear more, from Asheville FM’s news director Mark West, in this week’s Civic Roundup.


More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

Governor Cooper takes a step to reduce gun violence in North Carolina

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RALEIGH, NC – June 5, 2023 –  On June 5th, Governor Roy Cooper announced the North Carolina S.A.F.E. (Secure All Firearms Effectively) initiative for the safe storage of firearms to save lives and reduce gun thefts. The initiative is in response to the rising number of gun-related fatalities of children and youth and firearm thefts in the state. Most gun thefts from cars were from unlocked cars. According to a statewide telephone survey in 2021, more than one-half of loaded firearms at home were stored unlocked. The Governor declared June 4-10 as being a Week of Action to raise awareness of the importance of safe gun storage. The program includes social media ads, advertising on buses, and teaching children about preventing gun violence.

Firearm violence is a public health problem in North Carolina.

  • It is the most frequent cause of children and youth death
  • 116 children died from firearm-related injury in 2021
  • Most firearm-related deaths are suicides.
  • Most adolescent suicides by firearms were from a gun owned by a family member
  • The annual rate of gun deaths increased more than 200% between 2012 to 2021
  • There were more hospitalizations of children from firearm injuries between 2016 to 2020
  • There were more children emergency department visits for firearm injury between 2017 to 2021
  • The number of gun thefts have been skyrocketing
  • There is an increase in firearm-related juvenile crime

Safe gun storage is an effective intervention to reduce firearm thefts and firearms deaths of children and youth. NC S.A.F.E. recommends that gun owners follow these recommendations:

  • Firearms should be locked when not in use
  • Firearms should be stored unloaded
  • Ammunition should be stored separately and locked
  • Firearms in vehicles should be locked and the vehicle should be locked

The Governor’s gun safety initiative has brought a lot of attention for gun violence prevention to western North Carolina. At their June 6th meeting, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners recognized this month as Gun Violence Prevention Month. On June 8th, the NC Department of Public Safety co-hosted a media event in partnership with the Buncombe County Department of Health & Human Services to promote the initiative and the Week of Action.

Governor Cooper said at a press conference earlier in the month, “For those who own guns, it’s our responsibility to keep them safe and out of the wrong hands. Safe storage is an essential part of responsible gun ownership, and this initiative will encourage North Carolinians to safely secure their firearms in their homes and vehicles.”

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]


More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

Check out the app before you go tubing or swimming in Asheville’s French Broad River

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ASHEVILLE, NC – May 31, 2023 –  Summer is here, and so is the urge to cool off and play in the waters around Asheville. Be aware that Mountain True’s 2023 French Broad River’s water report indicated that more than one-half of the sites tested failed to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recreational standards for swimming where body contact with the water is frequent. However, the water meets the EPA’s standards for secondary recreation like tubing and kayaking. You can access an up-to-date French Broad River water quality report on the SwimGuide.org website, its smartphone app, or at https://frenchbroadwaterquality.com . Mountain True is a nonprofit organization based in Asheville that has a vision for healthy forests, clean waters and healthy communities in the Southern Blue Ridge region.

E. coli, a bacterium from feces, is a reliable indicator of the presence of bacteria and pathogens that are harmful to human health. Contact with or inadvertently swallowing contaminated water can cause gastrointestinal illness and skin, ear, respiratory, eye, neurologic, and wound infections. The most commonly reported symptoms are stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and low-grade fever occurring within 4 days of exposure. Children and seniors are at a greater risk of being affected. Water samples are collected each week from the French Broad River by Mountain True’s volunteers and staff from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The samples are processed to determine the E. Coli levels. Currently, the tests show that the E. Coli levels are at almost 8 times the EPA recreational water standard.

In her 1955 book The French Broad, the American writer Wilma Dykeman described how many years of dumping untreated sewage and industrial waste into the waterway had created a dirty, smelly river that she described as “too thick to drink, too thin to plow.” After the Clean Water Act of 1972, the work of many nonprofit organizations and volunteers improved the river’s water quality.

The river has an unhealthy-appearing brown color, a clear sign of sediment and other pollutants running through the waterway. The French Broad River has elevated levels of harmful bacteria from sewer and septic system leaks, cattle accessing streams, and stormwater runoff from animal agricultural operations and fields. Booming construction and development, more frequent heavy rains due to climate change, and an aging stormwater system result in more runoff from urban areas, more sewer overflows, and increased waterway sediment.

The river has a strong economic presence around Asheville. It is estimated to bring in $3.8 billion annually according to a study by Western Carolina University economics professor Steve Ha and the French Broad River Partnership, a group of more than 50 organizations that want to improve the river’s health for environmental and economic benefits.

Hartwell Carson, Mountain True’s French Broad Riverkeeper, said, “We strongly encourage recreation. I go out all the time, swimming, boating – I just do it in an educated and informed way.”

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]


More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

The Buncombe County COVID-19 weekly update

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ASHEVILLE, NC – June 21, 2023 – The COVID-19 metrics are on the CDC’s COVID Dashboard. Weekly data from the week ending on June 10th indicate:

  • Hospital admissions are at a low level in every county in North Carolina and almost 100% of the counties in the U.S.
  • There were fewer than 10 deaths due to COVID last week in North Carolina, the lowest level of 6 groups.
  • Emergency room visits for COVID-19 are minimal in North Carolina

Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID outbreaks. The Buncombe & Henderson counties wastewater data for the week ending on June 7th is on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard.

  • The number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at a light blue level representing the 2nd lowest level of 5 groups.
  • The 15-day rate of change of the number of viral gene copies in each water sample is at the most negative rate of measurement.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants everyone to know that:

  • COVID-19 can affect people differently. Some people have mild symptoms like a cold and others have more severe symptoms like a bad case of the flu. Some effects can be long-lasting.
  • Older adults and immunocompromised people are at a higher risk of developing severe illness and being hospitalized. The CDC recommends that people in these groups get an updated COVID-19 bivalent booster because it gives added protection.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

  • Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines
  • For extra protection, wear an effective medical grade mask
  • People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home
  • People with any COVID symptoms should get tested
  • If you test positive, your doctor may recommend medical treatment

More and more Americans have developed some immunity to COVID-19 from immunizations and previous infection. New variants continue to infect people with the most at-risk groups more susceptible to severe illness.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]


More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

AFM News Hour reports on “job threatening pressure” from mayor during December water outage

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In this week’s Civic Roundup for Wednesday, June 21, 2023, we report on the Asheville City Council meeting of June 13, at which extensive reports were presented on the system-wide water outages over the Christmas holiday last year. Concerns with water pressure, lack of water, or discolored water began on Dec. 24 when temperatures fell, causing the water production facility’s filtration and settling basins to freeze.

The system normally would be able to keep up with the water demand when the facility went offline, according to officials, but the winter storm led to numerous water line breaks that depleted the system’s water level. Overly optimistic estimates of when the restoration of service would occur, according to multiple sources made under pressure from the mayor’s office, led to confusion and frustration on the part of the public.

According to reporting in the Asheville Watchdog, the city has a longstanding history of water woes. The origin of the city’s run-down water infrastructure dates to the Great Depression and the mountain town’s insistence on paying off a massive debt load. The city funneled every available dollar to repaying that debt, ignoring infrastructure needs and using water revenues to that purpose. The depression-era debt was paid off in 1976.

In 2022, an estimated 27 percent of the water from the city’s two main reservoirs was lost to leaky pipes, and there were more than 720 “boil water advisories” in various parts of the city between 2017 and 2021, usually caused by breaks in water mains.

Listen to our report to hear Mike McGill, of WaterPIO, a water system communication firm, regarding misleading messaging and its results, with McGill pointing to direct orders and “job-threatening pressure” from Mayor Esther Manheimer for the water department to say on Dec. 27 that service would be restored within 24-48 hours, even though employees expressed concerns that meeting such a time frame would be “highly unlikely.”