Considering that a new Danville City Council meeting is coming up on Tuesday night, isn’t it about time that I publish a quick recap of what happened after the 109 minutes of flag speeches? Let’s fly through that quickly now.
We’ll start where we left off in Part #1.
Normally, I’d expect a recess after over 100 minutes of public comments. Not this time, we’re going into Speed Round mode. And I’m going into Big Board mode!
- A $150,000 grant is approved to replace the E-911 phone system.
- Council approves up to $9,750,000 worth of bonds to be issued. That doesn’t mean that much will be borrowed, it just authorizes up to that amount.
- The ARC of Southside gets tax-exempt status for real estate and personal property approved as a non-profit agency.
- The Forest Hills voting precinct will be merged into the Langston precinct since Forest Hills Elementary School now looks like a state penitentiary with all the security fencing and will be hard to get into by the public on election days. Avon Keen speaks in the public hearing, having heard about this for the first time. You have to believe the stupid flag controversy got all of his attention. Keen wants to know how this will affect the racial breakdown of the precinct, so Registrar Peggy Petty comes up to say “YOU BIG DUMMY! Danville doesn’t elect people by precincts so it doesn’t matter!” Actually, she calmly and respectfully said that, but I loved imagining her calling Keen a big dummy for not knowing that.
- And in the last business item, Council approves an easement so that Piedmont Lands (William Gentry) can clear up a title problem at 601 Craghead Street. Attorney R.J. Lackey explains that the easement is needed to get title insurance and possibly turn the building into something useful for the River District. Fred Shanks has a conflict of interest, so that one is approved 8-0-1. All of the other votes tonight were 9-0.
- We move to the around the horn comment section, and all councilmen express regrets at the death of Mary Scott, Wendell Scott’s widow. The only other interesting thing comes from Lee Vogler, who announces his plans to get the public library named in honor of the late Ruby Archie. Naming something after Archie is a great idea that’s been pushed in community discussions, and Vogler’s suggestion of the public library is a quite appropriate building (based on Archie’s passion for education). He gets strong SouthsideCentral support for this initiative.
That’s it. We’re done. Technically, we were done 13 days ago but who’s counting? Heh. This is still the most detailed coverage than any other media source has put out on this meeting. We’ll see you LIVE! on Tuesday night (7/21/15) for the next Danville City Council meeting.
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