Buncombe OKs $500K in emergency funds in response to COVID-19

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ASHEVILLE - Buncombe County will allocate $500,000 from its fund balance for emergency costs associated with the coronavirus pandemic after commissioners approved the measure during their March 17 meeting.

County staff had originally proposed $250,000, but Budget Director Jennifer Barnette told the board that Buncombe's "necessary associated expenditures for ... items or services" already totaled about $130,000 as of that day.

Purchases have included personal protective equipment, take-out meal supplies for schools and contracts for emergency coordination.

"Those are some of the types of expenditures that we can continue to anticipate to need to purchase," Barnette said. 

More:WNC districts prepare for virtual learning, meal service as schools close

County Manager Avril Pinder said she also expects there to be costs associated with locations to house or quarantine indigent members of the community.

"We want some funds available that we can do those kinds of things,” she said.

The board unanimously approved a budget amendment, allowing an allotment of fund balance dollars to be split with $350,000 going to public safety, $75,000 to human services and $75,000 to general services.

Asked by Commissioner Anthony Penland whether that would be enough, Pinder said the intent is to spend at a faster rate early as the county prepares.

"We're doing a fast-spend right now; we don't know that we're going to maintain that spend rate," she said.

More:Coronavirus: Buncombe is reviewing its emergency response plans. See them here.

She said staff is monitoring the spending and will report back to the board.

Board Chairman Brownie Newman said commissioners can hold meetings "as needed" if they need to allot more money for the response.

"How we respond now is going to make a difference in how it plays out,” he said. "... We’re gong to get through this, but I think the things we do will determine how well we get through this and how quickly we get through this. ... We’ve never faced this particular kind of challenge.”

County drafting orders to close gyms, pools

Commissioners also received an update on the county's response to the spread COVID-19 from Buncombe Public Health emergency preparedness coordinator Fletcher Tove and interim health director Dr. Jennifer Mullendore.

Tove said the county is "drafting supplemental orders" to Gov. Roy Cooper's March 17 executive order.

Cooper's order limited all North Carolina restaurants and bars operations to take-out and delivery only as of 5 p.m. March 17.

The local orders would "look at closing and restricting gyms, pools, spas, entertainment venues and any other social setting where groups could potentially congregate within six feet for extended period of time and meet our close-contact criteria," Tove said.

Mullendore offered commissioners a “big picture overview” of the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The county opened two drive-through testing locations March 17. Both were still operating when commissioners met. As of 5 p.m., Mullendore said one location had conducted 28 tests and the other had conducted 60.

"They've seen more people than that, but they're screening people making sure they have symptoms ... and meet the criteria for testing," she said.

The county's communicable nurses have performed 12 additional tests. Community health providers providers have done about 80, Mullendore estimated.

North Carolina's COVID-19 case count was at 63 on March 18, according to the official numbers updated daily by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. That includes both confirmed positive and presumptive positive cases.

That count does not include an individual who tested positive in Buncombe after a visit to Asheville March 10-13. The person is in isolation in Macon County, which also does not appear on the NCDHSS's map of positive cases.

More:Coronavirus: Quarantine orders issued for contacts of Buncombe visitor with positive test

Buncombe County interim health director Dr. Mullendore said previously that is because the person is a New York resident and will be tallied in that state instead of in North Carolina.

Mackenzie Wicker covers Buncombe County for the Asheville Citizen Times. You can reach her at mwicker@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter @MackWick.

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