Home Decor – Luxury resort a ‘place of familiarity’ for Rocky Mount council members on retreat, city manager says :: WRAL.com

By Indira Eskieva, WRAL Eastern North Carolina reporter

Rocky Mount, N.C. — The City Council needs to travel to Asheville in April for a retreat to pick up ideas about providing more affordable housing in Rocky Mount, City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney said Monday.

The retreat needs to be held at the luxury Omni Grove Park Inn resort in Asheville because it would make council members feel more comfortable, she said in an exclusive interview with WRAL News.

“You know, the Grove Park Inn is a place of familiarity with some of the members of council,” she said. “It’s like any place else. When you go on vacation or you go to a worksite or you go to a conference, I think people are a little more at ease when they have been some place and have experienced that particular venue.”

City leaders have faced criticism for the decision to travel to a mountain resort during a pandemic instead of holding the City Council’s annual retreat at the Rocky Mount Event Center. Small-Toney said the retreat is included in the annual budget, and while she won’t have exact costs for several weeks, the budget is between $16,000 and $18,000.

“I will say that, whatever it is, it will be within the budget for council retreats and conferences,” she said.

In response to a public records request submitted by WRAL, city officials provided documents showing that the retreats cost the city $16,000 in 2018 and $14,000 in 2019. The 2020 retreat was canceled because of the pandemic.

“Asheville is a very progressive city, and they have put in place a number of measures to provide affordable housing for their community,” Small-Toney said. “Affordable housing is a high priority of this council.”

About 38 percent of Rocky Mount residents are paying too much of their income for housing, she said.

“We may not be able to go into the [Asheville] communities, but we certainly hope we’ll be able to engage with the elected officials, staff [and] the community stakeholders … in terms of what they’ve been able to accomplish,” she said.

Small-Toney said her office put together a package on holding the retreat in Asheville or in Rocky Mount, but the ultimate decision came from council members, where feelings remain divided about the trip after a 4-3 vote last month to go to Asheville.