News

City employees get $1,000 bonuses for Helene recovery performance

By Bill Moss, Published: December 6, 2024

Hendersonville city employees will get a $1,000 holiday bonus in appreciation of their work as a repurposed emergency operations team that worked long hours for weeks to get the city up and running after the catastrophic damage from Hurricane Helene, the City Council decided Thursday night.

As the last council meeting of the year approached, council members asked City Manager John Connet to look into the one-time year-end checks. In addition to full-time personnel, permanent part-timers will get $500. The total cost of $330,000 is covered by the city's fund balance.

Council member Jeff Miller, who departed from the council later in the evening. said he was glad that his last motion would be the one to reward the city staff, who worked in new roles as needed in recovery, rebuilding and other functions. After Helene flooded the city operations center on Williams Street, the city pivoted the city to the new Fire Station 1.

"City Manager Connet turned it into an Emergency Operations Center second to none," Miller said. "Firefighters shared the space and made room for firefighters that came from other areas. People were working 12-hour shifts every day, sometimes more than that.”

"I saw the way the staff jumped right in. I saw people that saw the big firehouse and fire truck and walked up. They had nowhere else to go, they lost everything," he said. "Every day was an experience. Really tough times. But watching how everybody stepped up and watching how that firehouse became an absolute beacon of hope for so many really took us to a bright side. Hendersonville became an oasis."