Jackson County Commission - County Park Transition - FEMA Information

 Jackson County Commission approved a motion to develop a transition plan for the County Park management from the County Park Board to a department under the Jackson County Commission. The approved motion stipulated a plan must be developed within 60 days.

The County Commission passed a resolution on April 12, 2010 to abolish the Jackson County Park Board's management of the facility and place the management of the park under the commission by creating a seperate department. All County Park issues reported on this blog: http://arklite.blogspot.com/search/label/Jackson%20County%20Park

There has been no consideration given to excessive costs which will be placed on citizens due to this new park management plan. Ms. Sandra Erickson, Jackson County Administrator stated there was no cost study or analysis performed to determine if this plan would be cost effective.

County Administrator, Ms. Sandra Erickson, revealed there are no draft plans as to organization or draft policies for the new County Park department. Ms. Erickson stated when asked about budgeting and fund site for money received, "we have created an enterprise fund for the park's income." Enterprise Funds are created as a seperate fund area to place money collected for services charged.  Under the new park's department all parks in Jackson County will be supported by the income from the Jackson County Park as no other parks under county control receive money.

The parks in Higdon and PaintRock, including the Jackson County Park, will be under the control of the new parks department. The County Park at Skyline is leased by the Town of Skyline and is managed by the Town of Skyline.

The creation of another bureaucratic departments is not cost effective nor a prudent decision. It is my thoughts the only reason Commissioner Horrace Clemmons went along with this plan is his secretive agenda to create a Walls of Jericho Park. His plans will be spoiled when the commission comes to realize the costs of creating this new bureaucracy will overwhelm the funds generated by the sole income producing source, Jackson County Park.

Life long government employees, secretive agendas, and senseless decision makers do not make for effective government managers. It does make for bureaucratic, wasteful government spenders.

Yesterdays County Commission agenda, click on image for an expanded view. In other business the County Commission approved a new proposal to present to the Legislative Delegation concerning the TVA-in-lieu-of-tax disbursements, the proposal is currently unsigned and unapproved.

FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, representative Mr. A.D. Hill made a presentation to the commission. No commissioner made any inquiry of Mr. Hill. After the commission meeting I interviewed Mr. Hill. He stated there were approximately 1,300 households which have registered in Jackson County to receive emergency fund assistance as a result of tornado disaster damage. Many private organizations and citizens have provided assistance. Mr. Hill commented, "if citizens do not register for disaster assistance they will not receive any benefits from the disaster funds." Online FEMA registration information, phone contacts and other information may be found at http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=54804  Mr. Hill stated an emergency mobile help center should be available in Jackson County by Friday May 13, 2011. The tentative plans are for the mobile center to be present in Pisgah for 3 days, Flat Rock for 3 days and Bridgeport for 3 days.

FEMA Contact information:
•By phone, call 800-621-FEMA(3362) from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., local time. Operators are multilingual. For the speech or hearing impaired, the number is TTY 800-462-7585.
•By computer, go online to  http://www.disasterassistance.gov/ .
•By smartphone or tablet, use  m.fema.gov .