The Buncombe County Culture and Recreation Authority held its first meeting. The mere concept evokes images of a harsh taskmaster making sure people stretch far enough with their calisthenics and Zumba exactly to the beat. More realistically, one might assume the board members would set priorities, but David Gantt stated:

We’re going to have to set the priorities on how we set the priorities.

The authority has oversight over a capital improvements budget recommended by county staff, which includes:

building a new $2.5 million library in east Asheville, implementing $6.1 million in improvements to Buncombe County Sports Park, implementing $3.2 million in improvements to Lake Julian Park, building a $30 million new aquatics facility and more.

Since the board has taxing powers, it will have to increase the already levied 3.5-cent property tax to pay for it all. Anyway, those who won the hotly-coveted seats at the table put their minds together and resolved:

[Their] first steps will be assessing county needs (incorporating community input), evaluating capital recommendations from staff, forming advisory committees, and hiring a director.