Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:

Question: I’m just wondering what is going to happen to the badly damaged MANNA FoodBank location on Swannanoa River Road. I pass by it almost every day, and all that’s been done is a chain link fence has been put up around the property.

My answer: Honestly, a chain-link fence is a lot more than what’s happened at some other damaged properties since Helene.

Real answer: MANNA’s former location at 627 Swannanoa River Road was a total loss, as I noted in a story in late March. Mary Nesbitt, MANNA’s chief development officer, said the nonprofit experienced $28 million in losses, a conservative estimate, as its two buildings, and everything inside, were completely destroyed. 

MANNA did salvage its truck fleet by moving it ahead of the storm. The nonprofit, which serves 16 counties in western North Carolina, has relocated to a former FedEx facility in Mills River, a building that suits its needs well but requires a renovation to add freezer space.

The Swannanoa River Road location, which sat just yards from the river, had about 50,000 square feet of warehouse space in two buildings, with about 40 percent dedicated to refrigerated or frozen foods.

“MANNA has been working diligently for months to move through the approval process toward demolition and debris removal for our Swannanoa River Road properties,” Nesbitt told me last week via email. “Based on information that we received (April 22), we are hopeful that the demolition and debris removal will be approved and will be taking place in the near future.”

MANNA is “encouraged that there is movement in the approval process,” she said.

Buncombe County property tax records show the 4.78 acre parcel that the two buildings sit on off Swannanoa River Road has an appraised tax value of $515,300. That’s for the land only, as the buildings are goners.

On Oct. 11, a city planning department employee made a note on the city’s permitting site about the property and several others along Swannanoa River Road. It states: “This is an FYI, the following addresses are structures located in the floodway that I will need very detailed information for as they may have to be removed due to substantial damage.”

Nesbitt said MANNA is sort of in “uncharted waters” as it waits to see what government regulations say about future uses of the property and what it can or cannot do with it.

“The answer is that we do not yet know what ‘allowable uses’ will be determined for the site,” Nesbitt said. “Once we have that information, we would like to sell, if that is possible.”

Developer Rusty Pulliam (who’s not affiliated with the site) said, in general, locations along the Swannanoa River that flooded badly can remain commercially viable. Pulliam, principal and CEO of Pulliam Properties, an Asheville-based commercial development company, said businesses that have moveable equipment or operations, such as a construction equipment rental company, would make the most sense along the river.

“I think a lot of people are learning with the technology that’s available now, you can sit on your couch and watch the Weather Channel each night, and it can pretty much tell you right on the money how much rain you’re gonna get,” Pulliam said. “So when they’ll call for these big storms, people can load up their product real quick and get it out of a building.”

Reusing or rebuilding structures is probably going to take longer than people think, though, Pulliam said, because property owners still have to navigate flood insurance payouts, bank loans and governmental regulations.

Question: So the one thing you did not touch on in the story of your recent travels was the fact that Charlotte Douglas International Airport does not seem to have any kind of light rail or shuttle system to facilitate passengers getting from one end of the airport to the other. They now have four or five terminals at Charlotte, and you are expected to walk everywhere. So fire off a question to Charlotte: Where is the tram to take you from terminal A or terminal One (whichever they call it) all the way to terminal four or terminal D without trying to kill yourself running? The small commuter planes like what we have here in Asheville go into the first terminal, and the big jets that go cross country go into the third or fourth terminal, so anybody traveling cross country from Asheville connecting through Charlotte has got to make this epic trek through the airport.

My answer: I’m still wheezing from my very unathletic trot/waddle across CLT.

Real answer: I did indeed “fire off” this question to the airport’s media relations team, and they offered a point of clarification first.

“CLT has one terminal with five connected concourses that have a high volume of connecting passenger traffic for customers flying on American Airlines,” the media relations team said, referring to concourses A through E. “In order to help customers traverse the terminal, there are over 125 elevators, escalators and moving walkways that assist customers making connections.”

Allow me a moment for a mini-rant here: If you get on the moving walkways, please keep walking, instead of just standing there enjoying the moving view. Generally, the tubby, profusely sweating person (me) behind you is running late for a connecting flight and using the magical walkway to speed things up.

But back to the lack of a tram or subway.

“Due to the layout of the terminal, it would be very difficult and costly to add a tram system to move customers to the different concourses,” the CLT media team said. “We are always looking for new opportunities to make our customers’ journey easier and will continue to look for ways to make improvements.”

So, keep the walking shoes handy.

Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page. Please submit your comments there.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

Related