ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Regarding a question from the Daily Planet about whether the Asheville Police Departent’s recently released crime statistics are accurate, local FOP official Rondell Lance noted there are many variables involved and that “it’s all relative” and that one should take everything “with a grain of salt.”

Lance’s comments on the latest APD crime statistics were made during an Oct. 11 telephone interview with the Daily Planet.

Lance, an Asheville native and the long-time president of the Asheville area Fraternal Order of Police, is retired and now serves as the chairman of the local FOP’s Legislative and Communications Committee.

Before discussing the crime statistics, Lance said he would like to say a few words about outgoing Asheville Police Chief Mike Lamb, who also is an Asheville native. Lamb recently announced plans to retire in December, after 28 years with the APD, working his way up from the bottom to the top. 

“Mike Lamb?” Lance asked, rhetorically. “I think he done a tremendous job” as APD chief. “He’s a great person. He deserves his retirement with his family... From what I’ve seen, he’s gotten it to the level where people want to work at the (Asheville) Police Department now. I also think Asheville City Council has ‘seen the light’” in aspiring to have a fully staffed police unit — largely thanks to Lamb’s persuasive efforts.

From Staff Reports

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The city’s temporary pretreatment systems at the North Fork and William DeBruhl water treatment plants will remain in place through Nov. 30 with continued funding support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city said in an Oct. 7 news release.

Water Resources Department spokesperson Clay Chandler said in the relase that the systems will start demobilizing Dec. 1 — and be taken offsite.

They were installed after Tropical Storm Helene wreaked havoc on the city’s water system, leaving it more vulnerable to future storms. Chandler said they provided a “layer of redundancy,” ensuring that if another storm spiked turbidity in the city’s reservoirs, meaning the cloudiness caused by sediment and debris, water would continue to be filtered — rather than pumping non-potable, highly chlorinated water into the system.

The Asheville Citizen Times reported on Oct. 8 that “funding was previously only secured for the systems through the end of September. The city said it would continue to negotiate with FEMA for funding that would keep them there as long as possible.”

Chandler said in the release, “Our watershed is still vulnerable,” though not as unprotected as it was in Helene’s immediate aftermath, with the forest given some time to heal, and debris removal beginning at the Burnett Reservoir, which feeds the North Fork plant.

Debris removal at DeBruhl will take place eventually, although no timetable has been set. Support would end along with the year’s hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.