The Greensboro City Council will hold its regular first meeting of the month on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 4:30 p.m.
The starting time is a little misleading because the City Council plans to go into closed session at 4:30 p.m. to discuss an economic development project, and the public portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. In the past, this has meant that the public portion of the meeting would begin no earlier than 5:30 p.m. but could be delayed if the closed session runs longer than anticipated.
The first meeting of the month is largely devoted to the once a month public forum, but there are also resolutions, a consent agenda, a public hearing on one item and three general business items.
The public hearing and the general business items all have to do with an awkward problem facing the City Council. In November 2006, the voters of Greensboro passed $10 million in economic development bonds and, according to the agenda, that money has to be spent by the middle of December 2021.
So the three items offer the City Council a way to spend the $3.8 million in economic development funds that are still available after 15 years.
The public hearing is on granting $700,000 in economic development bond funds to Brittway Investments LLC for the extension of East Elmsley Drive approximately 800 feet. The total cost of the project is approximately $2 million and “would allow greater access to the developable industrial site,” which was recently rezoned to Light Industrial (LI) by The Carroll Companies, which owns this publication.
The $700,000 are funds that are still available from the $1.2 million the City Council designated in 2016 “to be used to fund economic development projects in East Greensboro.
The remaining $3.1 million in 2006 economic development bond funds would be transferred to Greensboro Water Resources Department for reimbursement for industrial projects.
And the rich get richer on everyone’s taxes with a hand from Mandate Mayor and her incumbent cabal.