Library director outlines recovery anniversary, staffing, renovations and community programs

At the meeting of the Buncombe County Library Advisory Board, the library director delivered a report that touched on recovery work since Storm Helene, staffing changes, capital projects, community programming and a request for public input on a county recovery plan. The director opened by recognizing the one‑year anniversary of Helene and thanked library staff for emergency response and ongoing recovery work. The director told the board many staff volunteered for overnight shelter shifts before the storm and continued serving during recovery efforts. The board heard that fiscal‑year 2027 budget planning has begun. The director said the library will submit requests this fall for technology and new positions; no new positions were approved for the current year because of recovery‑related budget impacts. Ordering of books and program budgets have returned to pre‑storm levels. The Fairview Library oral history project, launched in 2018, was completed and is now available in the special collections online; staff also produced four hardbound volumes of local oral histories. The county’s Board of Commissioners approved renaming a meeting room at Fairview as the Annie Clark Ager Community Room; more than 100 people attended the project’s culminating celebration. A renovation of the West Asheville Library is planned. An RFQ was issued, the firm Affirm was selected and met with library leadership; the renovation will address building systems and interior redesign. The director said the project will likely require a temporary closure so work can be completed more cost‑efficiently than piecemeal repairs, but no timeline was provided. Staffing changes include Erin Parcells’s promotion to library services manager, overseeing PAC (downtown) library adult services, youth supervisors and special collections; Parcells earned an MLIS supported by the library trust fund. The West Asheville branch manager vacancy will be filled by an external hire relocating from Florida; that person’s start date is in October. On programs, the director reported a new partnership with the local NCWorks office to assist job seekers and small business clients; NCWorks staff will operate in branches through the end of the year. Planning has begun for 1 Book 1 Bunkum 2026, with initial funding commitments from the trust board, friends groups and county programming funds. The director shared two brief impact stories from East Asheville Library: staff assisted a patron in completing an online job application who later returned to report he had been hired; and a community art project ("post‑it portraits") led to an unexpected connection with a person the director described as a friend of the inventor of the Post‑it note. Although not a library action, the director urged board members to review and provide input on Envision Buncombe: A Path Forward, the county’s post‑Helene recovery plan. The plan is open for public comment through early October; the director said department heads welcome additional community feedback. The director also noted the end‑of‑summer celebration at Oakley Library drew strong attendance, featured a button‑making station, community partners and outdoor programming, and helped set a record door count for the branch during the festival.