Fontana Dam – After lying dormant for almost four months, the town held a council meeting last week.
Stymied by the inability to assemble a proper quorum – the end result of a mass exodus at the March 28 meeting, in which the mayor, a council member – plus the town administrator, finance director and attorney – all resigned, the small municipality has been unable to conduct business as usual. Among other housekeeping items, this has led to a delay in submitting the 2025-26 budget to the state.
A resort town in the truest sense of the definition, the council has often struggled to even keep members – due to the constant entrance and exit of "residents" from the village in the northeastern corner of Graham County.
However, Fontana Dam finally got back to 80% strength on July 23. Just five days after two new candidates for the November municipal election successfully qualified for the race, those same individuals were appointed to the board at an emergency council meeting – one per an order from Gov. Josh Stein.
Joshua Grant's second term on the council came thanks to a letter dated July 21 from Stein, which finally allowed the town to resume business as usual.
"There will be some catching up, but I have a plan," Acting Mayor Thomas Byrd said. "I'm very excited about the future on all this."
Along with Amanda Ryan, Byrd was the only remaining council member after March's meeting concluded. The resignations were formally accepted July 23, since a quorum was present to do so.
Byrd said that financial updates would be provided at a special-called budget hearing, which will take place at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. He added that the League of Municipalities has offered free legal advice, while the town continues to search for replacement counsel.
Additional moves made at the meeting included:
* The other qualified candidate for November's ballot, Andrew Stanfield, was appointed to the council. He was later given the duty of finance officer as well;
* Byrd was officially appointed mayor;
* Grant was named mayor pro tem;
* Kevin Clark, Brian McGackin and Dave Vmlah were each appointed to the town's Tourism Development Authority.
"I want to thank everybody that has helped us get through this," Byrd said. "I'm incredibly optimistic for the future. We can overcome any of these obstacles and continue doing what we do."