Sierra Club March 5: Asheville City Budget: Funding Climate Change Priorities

The SIERRA CLUB OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA (WENOCA) presents an update on ASHEVILLE’s BUDGET PRIORITIES RELATED TO TRANSIT, urban forestry, and renewable energy. Our community has made each of these issues a priority. We need to encourage the council to provide the FUNDING NEEDED TO ADDRESS EACH OF THESE PRIORITIES. This event is free and open to the public. City Councilwoman Julie Mayfield will provide an overview of the city’s BUDGET DISCUSSIONS TO DATE. Mayfield will be joined by Unitarian Rev. Jeff Jones, ASHEVILLE TRANSIT COMMITTEE, who will discuss transit issues: The City Council made its first CHANGES TO TRANSIT THIS JANUARY IN KEEPING WITH THE TRANSIT MASTER PLAN THE CITY COUNCIL PASSED IN JULY 2018. These include increasing service to keep on-time schedules and to service more neighborhoods, possibly to increase evening hours, and possibly to increase frequency along Hendersonville Rd. and to the airport. Steve Hendricks, chair of ASHEVILLE URBAN FORESTRY COMMISSION, also will be on hand to discuss restoring our urban tree canopy: The October 2019 ASHEVILLE TREE CANOPY STUDY REVEALED A LOSS OF 6.4%, or 891 acres of trees, between 2008 and 2018. The urban heat island effect can lead the temperature of ASHEVILLE’s city pavement to rise by as much as 18 degrees. A professional urban forester is needed to manage the city’s urban forest and to develop an Urban Forest Master Plan. Mayfield, who was elected to ASHEVILLE CITY COUNCIL IN 2015, she leads the council’s work on transportation, the environment, and clean energy. She chairs two council committees: Planning and Economic Development, and Housing and Community Development. She also serves as the co-director of MountainTrue, a regional environmental advocacy organization. Prior to moving to ASHEVILLE AND MOUNTAINTRUE IN 2008, she was vice president and general counsel for the Georgia Conservancy Rev. Jones is an Affiliated Community Minister with the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation of ASHEVILLE. In 2017, after 20 years serving as a UU parish minister, he left full-time parish ministry to serve as an unpaid Community Minister, creating a ministry in Compassionate Living. His current ministry focusses on transit, learning and the practice of nonviolent communication, and veganism. Stephen Hendricks is an environmental planning professional with over 40 years of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture, a master’s degree in landscape architecture, and has done extensive post-graduate work in natural resource planning. A 32-year veteran of the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, in 2010 he received the Aldo Leopold National Conservation Stewardship Award. For more information, contact Judy Mattox, judymattox@sbcglobal.net, 828-683-2176.