Let’s get back in the saddle again (after being shot off of my horse) with a semi-detailed recap of what’s happened at three local government meetings this week.
Hands on your buzzers, contestants. It’s time for the LightningRound!
In this LightningRound, we’ll take a look at Monday’s RIFA & Danville Planning Commission meetings, and Tuesday’s Danville Industrial Development Authority meeting. Let’s go!
We’ll start with Monday’s RIFA meeting that happened at noon at the Danville Regional Airport. And here’s the Big Board for the recap.
- Well, everybody had lunch. Who doesn’t love Main Street Coffee Emporium’s food?
- The minutes were approved. Yes, the minutes are always approved.
- Nobody spoke in the public comment section.
- Changes in procedure for making the upcoming month’s agenda were approved. The City Manager’s executive secretary won’t handle that anymore. That will now fall to the RIFA attorney (Michael Guanzon) and the board clerk (Sue DeMasi).
- The board approved the first step in refinancing bonds for the Cane Creek Industrial Park. They’ll get an approximate 2.34% interest rate on the bond amount of $3,700,000. That amount is what’s left after RIFA pays off an additional $900,000 from their available funds. It’s a three year deal with annual payments of $365,000, $385,000 & $405,000. After that, $2,545,000 plus interest will be left over and RIFA will do the same refinancing procedure again in 2019. That’s standard operating procedure in the bond market.
- The exact numbers on that refinancing will be worked out and will be approved at the August RIFA meeting.
- The entire paperwork on that refinancing was about 70 pages long. Sheesh.
- Board Treasurer Michael Adkins went over the financial reports and they were approved.
- There was a closed meeting and that’s the end!
BOOM! Let’s imagine the sound of a lightning strike and move to the Planning Commission meeting. Here’s their Big Board…
- George Lovelace was up first and he had all our his information perfect, so the commission recommended approval of rezoning 1910 North Main St. to allow for a used car lot there. That’s the old used-to-be restaurant location in the middle of a bunch of houses.
- Lovelace’s adventure was a great example of how the city’s planning & zoning staff really work hard to help out businesses. The staff worked with Lovelace and the DMV to buy him the extra time needed to get the rezoning. Lovelace didn’t have a good grasp of what was needed to satisfy the city code requirements but he was shown what he needed to do. I’m also giving high praise for George Lovelace here, because he did what he needed to do. Most importantly, he listened to the advice he was given.
- W.L. Pryor got a denial recommendation for his proposal for a “bingo hall” type of operation in the Dan River Plaza Shopping Center. He almost got the issue tabled until the following month when about 30 minutes into the Q&A session, he said there could very well be “electronic pull-tab machines” in the building. That brought the discussion to a halt and it was 7-0 against the proposal.
- Yes, this was the same W.L. Pryor who pleaded guilty to 15 felony counts of illegal gaming machines in Rockingham County in April. It was amusing to hear the former Rockingham County Board of Commissioners member say that the legality of the machines in North Carolina “was still under litigation”. Yeah, right.
- It will be fun to see if Pryor pulls his request before the August 4th Danville City Council meeting where the final decision will be made. If he goes through with the request, I know he’s going to be roasted on those felony guilty pleas.
- The plans to put a motel/restaurant near the 265 bypass at Route 86 was tabled until next month because the developer delivered preliminary site plans on the morning of Tuesday’s meeting.
- Finally, Rick Barker & Steve DelGiorno got an approval recommendation, applause and a lot of love from everybody for their coffee shop/wine bar proposal at the old gas station across from the museum. We showed you the conceptual site plan of the building in a previous article. The same Old West End (and nearby) neighbors that opposed the other ideas showed up with full support this time. The project will be great. Rick Barker said he’s the construction part of the project, and Steve DelGiorno will be the food & drink guy. Folks, you can’t go wrong with Steve DelGiorno being your food & drink guy.
- The minutes were approved, and that was the end of the meeting.
BOOM! Another lightning strike and we’ll wrap things up with Tuesday’s Danville Industrial Development Authority meeting.
- The IDA has moved their meetings from 11 AM back to 10 AM. This new time won’t interfere as much with their naps. Heh.
- The IDA still has somebody goes out to the side entrance of the municipal building and block off parking spaces for IDA members with small orange cones.
- Unlike the city council & school board elections for officers, there was no overthrow at the IDA meeting. Neal Morris is chairman, C.G. Hairston is vice chair, Richard Turner is treasurer, and Shirley Primiano is secretary. And by “secretary”, we mean “does absolutely nothing to be secretary” as the city staff record the votes and takes the minutes.
- It’s pretty much the same way for the “treasurer” position as the city’s Finance department handles all the financial business.
- Oddly enough, “Secretary” Shirley Primiano has voted against the minutes to be adopted at least once this year. I have no idea why.
- The minutes were approved. The minutes are always approved. Unanimously. Well, unless somebody gets confused and votes no. See above.
- Economic development staff went over some projects and Jerry Rigney made a presentation.
- The estimate for a lighting project on the Piedmont Powder Coatings was $3,000 instead of the $2,000 budgeted so that was approved for the high amount.
- Michael Adkins gave the financial reports. Michael Adkins gives a lot of financial reports. Michael Adkins knows his financial reports.
- A closed meeting and then the meeting was over.
BOOM! That’s it. That’s a LightningRound of all three meetings and it’s just over 1000 words. We’ve got more coming up on SouthsideCentral!
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