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Danville City Council – LIVE! (5/5/15)

We’re LIVE! at Danville City Hall for tonight’s Danville City Council meeting. This article is now complete with the most coverage that you’ll find anywhere.

Tonight was City Council Official Photo Night so everybody was already here when I arrived around 6:20 PM. This version of council is almost halfway through their term so I guess it was about time to get the photos done.

John Gilstrap does tonight’s prayer and leads the Pledge of Allegiance. Proclamations for Bike to Work Day & Reimagine That – Get To Know The Dan River. We’ll have some photos from that in a PhotoCentral article later on.

Susan Dalton does a terrific job as Troop Leader. Cathy Jones had to leave early and she’s awesome too.

Girl Scout Troop 152 is here for the 250 Mile Meal Challenge. Check out their Facebook page for more information.

We now move to public comment time. Hey! It’s Davis Montgomery!

Davis is going to become badass tonight, folks.

He’s here for his regular monthly update which now happens twice a month. He says the latest testing shows no detectable coal ash in the Dan River. Lee Vogler asks some questions about setback of the new Eden coal ash landfill. Gary Miller asks about how the landfill will be lined and Montgomery starts to have some fun. Miller says that a 300 year landfill is just kicking the can down the road. Sheesh. Yeah, only 300 years down the road. By then, I got a good feeling that science will have found a way to make coal ash go away. Montgomery says it’s better than today’s regular landfill laws with a smile on his face. We heart Davis Montgomery. Surprisingly, no council member plays the “Hey, give us some money” card tonight. Not even Gary Miller. We’re in Bizarro Land territory here.

Oh dear God. It’s Glenn Scearce.

Mr. Excitement speaks.

He first talks about his displeasure on Danville Utilities. Then he doesn’t like the River District idea because he rarely goes downtown. Now he doesn’t like Langston because of something. He blames parents for the problems of the schools.

The audience is enthralled by Glenn Scearce’s speech. Not.

He now moves to his third item. This is his second “third item”. He suggested an ordinance to make people pull their pants up. Hoo boy. He finishes, turns and walks out the door.

On to regular business. Grant money for Hazmat equipment is approved.

News buddies Denice Thibodeau & Leonard Harville are hard at work.

Hey, it’s Leonard Harville!

School Board budget is up for final approval. Buddy Rawley questions the cost of elevator repairs. James Buckner says he was against the budget before he’s now for it (because of cost savings). The budget passes on a 8-1 vote as Lee Vogler doesn’t like using the carryover money. Vogler gets the Buddy Rawley All By Myself “No” Vote Memorial Trophy for that. School Board members Ed Polhamus, Terri Hall & Steven Gould are in the audience tonight.

It’s getting weird mow as Alonzo Jones moves to table the proposed utility rate hikes. Now they’re voting to table the 2016 gas & electric rate changes but not the wastewater increase, which will be voted on and passes. John Gilstrap votes no for the hell of it and snatches the Buddy Rawley All By Myself “No” Vote Memorial Trophy for himself.

City budgets are approved for their first readings. We’re moving to around the horn time.

Buckner thanks the Girl Scouts and mocks the hell out of Halifax County’s dysfunctional government in a polite way. Alonzo Jones mentions the city council/youth council get-together that SouthsideCentral put on our calendar for the wrong day and totally missed. Oops. We move to the work session.

Here’s the audience for the work session. Terri Hall stays around because she’s awesome.

Here’s the complete view of the work session table. No, I’ve never figured out why Alonzo Jones & James Buckner are down on Exile Island over on the left.

We heart Phillip Smith. This guy knows his utilities business.

Utility Commission Phillip Smith introduces the Utilities Steering Committee’s recommendations. Some back-and-forth with it. We’ll see more from this in the coming weeks.

This is a nice and relatively cheap solution to have up to date information on every floor of City Hall. Since the image is mostly static, let’s see how long there is before burn-in. Maybe somebody will fix that issue because they read about it here.

Here’s the new video screens that replace the old antiquated paper directories.

Duke Energy’s Davis Montgomery and Dewberry’s Shawn Harden now talk about the proposed improvements to Abreu-Grogan Park.

Showtime Jones had to leave early, so Sherman Saunders takes his seat while Dewberry’s Shawn Harden has a presentation on the projector screen.

The audience watches the presentation about the Abreu-Grogan park improvements.

Two other people from Duke Energy are here to answer questions.

Budget director Cynthia Thomasson is ready to take her turn to talk about minor changes to the city’s new budget.

Sorry, Cynthia.

Forget about that. The talk moves to eventually making GW’s football stadium into a true city stadium. There was a fundraising group a few years but that fell apart. Since the stadium is school board property, they’ll have to be involved. John Gilstrap says that a true city stadium could be a venue for lots of sports events as well as for festivals and concerts. I like this idea a lot. Smoke break time and then Cynthia will finally be able to get her discussion in.

The audience has dwindled down. Note the clock. 9:35 PM. Ugh.

HR director Sara Weller has a few things to talk about after Cynthia does her stuff. After that, there’s a closed session with Telly Tucker & Corrie Teague from Economic Development. It’s 10:15 PM. We’re done here.

We’ll do a BreakDown article and go in-depth on what happened tonight. We’re also working on a PhotoCentral article with some bonus coverage. We’ve got all that and more coming up on SouthsideCentral!

14 comments to Danville City Council – LIVE! (5/5/15)

  • trevor

    glenn scearce hit many nails on the head !!! poo poo him if u want.—BRAVO

  • trevor

    his comment about schools was wonderful. right on target, putting blame on parents. working in schools I do speak from experience. he laid the problem at the right feet

    glad we still in good harmony S C ! 🙂

    • KMA,Pam

      The fact that you’ve had problems with parents is no shock, but the fact that you are someone who works in a school IS. Insane doesn’t begin to describe your sorry ass. You think your boss wold appreciate some of the dumbass racist comments you post on here? I hope to God you don’t work directly with children of any age.

      • trevor

        totally unprovoked and unnecessary. needless. once again if what I post annoys you why do u 1. let it bother you 2. reply why do u even reply? . best step for you is to put me on ignore. I am not stooping to your level of degrading insults. yes u have right to post but some are not needed.

        • KMA,Pam

          Same old song…blah, blah, blah. Why do I bother commenting on your posts? It’s mainly because you’re a bottom of the barrel racist idiot and your posts offend me. I can’t believe you work in a school. What grade? I hope to God you’re not a teacher and if you are, I hope you treat your students fairly and without the prejudice you spew on here. When you stop posting crap, I’ll stop replying.

        • KMA,Pam

          PS You’ve already stooped to my level with your ignorant insults. Don’t try to be above it all now.

  • Sheila B

    What was up with tabling the utility rate increases? They approve waste water but not the others. What is the reasoning? Not that I want the increases, I want council to work towards taking less from utilities for the general fund. I agree with Lee Vogler voting against SB budget due to their use (SB) of carryover funds. A symbolic vote in the end. I would have voted against as well.

  • Sheila

    We need a true city stadium? We need more places for concerts (Carrington Pavilion or parks not enough) and festivals? If we have money to spend let’s spend it on “needs” not “wants”. We don’t “need” a city stadium.

    • Buck

      You are right. There is a big difference in needs and wants. Danville can have anything we want. We can have a coliseum that seats 20,000. We can have a stadium that seats 75,000, but somebody will have to pay for it. If the city government pays for it, taxpayers will have to come up with the money. The people who propose these things never are willing to put up any money.

  • Nicole H.

    The city can build all the stadiums it wants and any size it wants with tax dollars (grant and foundation money is usually tax money from another mother) but in order for it not to become a line item burden on future budgets there needs to be a paying body in a majority of the seats for every event. Does Danville have the population base or the outreach ability to fill these seats and at least break even for this type of facility? Right now, I don’t think so.

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