From Staff Reports

Citing concerns about costs associated with a planned auditorium, Buncombe County in early April ordered work to stop on an expansion at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

The stoppage follows wrangling between school and county officials over the space.

A-B Tech wants an 800-seat auditorium in which to host allied health and workforce development programs.

Conversely, the county is contending that taxpayers could be hit with tens of millions of dollars if the auditorium is used more for conferences than classes.

The Buncombe finance office has stated that the federal government could charge a 39 percent penalty if the Internal Revenue Service determined that the aduitorium fails to fit with the tax-exempt bonds the county used to build it.

In a letter dated April 3, Assistant County Manager Jon Creighton told the contractor, land surveyor, engineer and architect on the project that the work is suspended because of �significant concerns� about the auditorium and its tax status.

The county will not pay for work completed after April 3, Creighton stressed. A-B Tech has spent about $2.3 million on design work, he said later, and has not started building the allied health building, which will cost about $50 million. 

The school also is improving Victoria Road and classrooms at the public safety center in Woodfin. The projects are funded by a quarter-cent sales tax that will raised $130 million over 17 years.

Suit seeks to overturn appointment to board 

Weaverville businessman Steve Holland has filed a lawsuit in mid-April seeking to overturn an appointment to the board of trustees of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

Filed in Buncombe County Superior Court, Holland�s suit claims that the Madison County Board of Commissioners violated the state�s open meetings law by approving the appointment of Madison Commissioner Wayne Brigman to the A-B Tech board in February.

The defendants listed in the suit are the Madison Board of Commissioners and the A-B Tech board as defendants.

The suit contends an inappropriate appointment of Brigman kept Republican Buncombe County Commissioner Mike Fryar off the board.

Fryar has been a critic of A-B Tech President Hank Dunn and a sales tax increase supporting an A-B Tech building program.

Dunn recently admittd that he rushed Brigman�s  swearing-in to keep Fryar off the board.

A-B Tech receives largest gift

The largest private donation in school history � a $5 million gift from a local couple � was reported in early April by Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

Longtime college supporters Jack and Carolyn Ferguson gave the gift, which is for the naming rights  of the new Allied Health and Workforce Development building.