Local gOVERNMENT
Water outage report: City botched communications, mayor exerted “extreme” pressure on staff members
This is a developing story and will be updated. The City of Asheville has released its long-awaited Independent Review Committee report on the devastating holiday season water outage, and it highlights the city’s ineptness in what it called “murky” communications, providing accurate information and even identifying who was actually in charge. The report also said Mayor Esther Manheimer, according to city employees, exerted “significant,” “major” and “extreme” pressure on staff members regarding estimated timelines for restored water services. “These people told the report’s authors ‘that if a public message was not immediately developed giving an estimate, the strong insinuation from…
Keep readingANSWER MAN
Answer Man: Will ‘The Fugitive’ train wreckage be removed?
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: I’ve heard the train wreckage from the movie “The Fugitive” — the locomotives you can see when you ride on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad — is going to be removed. Is that true? Does it still draw visitors? This is the rusting wreckage that says “Central Illinois Railroad” or something like that. It’s kind of cool, and I bet it’s still popular with tourists. Can you find out what’s going on with this? My answer: “Rusting Wreckage” is one of the many band names my two guitar…
Keep reading