Mitchell County approved a memorandum of agreement to join the state SMART debris program administered by the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management, shifting certain debris removal work to the state project worksheet and seeking FEMA reimbursement.

County staff (identified in the meeting as Mister Allen) told commissioners the county had been performing right-of-way debris removal and remediating major silt and debris on key county roads using contracted crews. Allen said the program is costly—he described seeing roughly $3,000,000 bills in recent months—and that joining the state SMART program will allow the county to offload some immediate cash-flow obligations to the state while retaining county oversight of the work.

Allen said the county would continue to use its current debris contractors and that private-property debris removal (PPDR) would be processed under the state reimbursement program. He described plans to stop county billing for certain cycles as the work is transitioned and said neighboring Avery County had already entered the state program several weeks earlier.

A commissioner moved to approve the memorandum of agreement between the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management and Mitchell County to participate in the SMART program; the motion was seconded and passed by voice vote.

County staff said the MOA is intended to preserve quality of debris removal while reducing the county’s immediate cash-burden and that the county will continue oversight of contractors during the state-managed reimbursement process.