BBC Research & Consulting to study race and gender disparity in Asheville contractsASHEVILLE - The city has turned to a Denver firm for a $320,000 yearlong business disparity study. BBC Research and Consulting should begin work in June to assess the state of city contracting with minority- and white women-owned businesses, said Brenda Mills, an economic development specialist for the city of Asheville.
The firm will analyze five years of data and organize surveys, focus groups and community meetings to understand the city's contracting and purchasing patterns. Municipalities wanting to legally justify a race-based minority business program must undertake an independent study, she said. The city last did this research in the 1990s, shortly after its program was formed. Read more here.
0 Comments
Women wanting hospital birth will have to drive miles to Sylva or Asheville.FRANKLIN - Mission Health’s chief executive offered a somber apology to the people of Macon County on Friday as he announced plans to build a new $43 million replacement community hospital with no labor and delivery services.
Dr. Ronald Paulus, president and CEO of Mission Health, speaking at a news conference in Asheville, said the nonprofit regional health care system was faced with two bad alternatives in an increasingly regulated and expensive health care environment. “We are very sorry that we cannot keep this program open," he said. "We looked at every possibility that we could conceive of ... We just couldn't find a way." Read more here. For the first time, each graduate is leaving the program with a jobASHEVILLE - The first job Stephen Barnard says he aspired to was that of a "thug." Barnard, 28, was raised by his grandmother in Montford. His father was in and out of prison and his mother struggled with addiction.
As a teenager, he was drawn to the young men he saw selling drugs on the streets of his neighborhood. He liked their cars, their clothes, their jewelry and their wealth. "I didn't want to work for nothing," said Barnard. "I wanted the easy money." Read more here. The new sign says "Asheville rocks"ASHEVILLE - The billboard that sparked reaction around the nation came down Tuesday and was replaced with a message to thank the supporters of a downtown jewelry store.
The new ad says, "Asheville rocks." The "o" is a sparkling diamond. "We are sorry if we offended anybody, we did have thousands more supporters than we have people who were offended so we wanted to thank our supporters," Eva-Michelle Spicer, co-owner of Spicer Greene Jewelers, told the Citizen-Times. Read more here. ASHEVILLE – The new Arthur R. Edington Education and Career Center, a training site for green jobs, will be dedicated in a public event this week. A tour of the facility will be offered after the ceremony, which starts at noon Saturday.
Housed in the former W.C. Reid Center, 133 Livingston St., the Asheville Housing Authority recently renovated the building and renamed it to honor Arthur R. Edington, former principal of the Livingston Street School. Partners envision the center will be a place where people from the surrounding neighborhoods will have access to education, job training, support services and other resources, strengthening residents' self-sufficiency and empowerment, reported the Asheville Housing Authority in a press release. Read more here. |
Beth WaltonWriter, World Traveler, Mother. These are my stories. Archives
May 2017
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
