SouthsideCentral was LIVE! at Danville City Hall for Tuesday’s Industrial Development Authority meeting. We’ve got the most detailed recap of what happened, so enjoy reading!
We’re underway! Chairman Neal Morris is out for today, so Vice Chairman C.G. Hairston is running the meeting, and by running the meeting I mean doing everything City Attorney and looking completely lost while doing so.
Mike Adkins goes over the financials.
We start with Mike Adkins going over two months of financial statements since the IDA didn’t have a December meeting, and then he goes over the results of the annual audit. The audit caught one very minor item of not applying a small amount of interest correctly, but that was fixed.
Next, he goes over the IDA’s refinancing of the Telvista loan. The IDA estimated that they would save about $1.3 million dollars but it turned out to be around $1.5 million. Economic development consultant Linwood Wright and Telvista agreed that since they had always paid the loan payment on time, that the company should get the extra money over a few months and have it applied to their rent. The IDA agreed on that on a 6-0 vote, and City Attorney Clarke Whitfield asked to get that agreement in writing from the IDA and Telvista so that there no question about why the rent was being reduced for a few months.
WDBJ’s Danielle Staub, HELLO!
WSET’s Valerie Bragg & R.J. Burnette, HELLO!
We’ve got a lot more media presence for this meeting than ever before. WSET & WDBJ are here at today’s meeting. Denice Thibodeau from the Register & Bee is also here, but she’s a regular.
Here’s a look at most of the board meeting today.
And here’s our audience this morning. Denice Thibodeau is on the first row in this photo. Interim City Manager Ken Larking, Amburn & Co.’s Jerry Amburn & River District Association director Ernecia Coles are on the next row. Arnold Hendrix, Earl Reynolds & Macerata Wheels’ Chris Joy are on the back row.
Next, the board approves a plaque for the Noblis building on Bridge Street honoring the company’s founder who recently died unexpectedly. Linwood Wright explains that the IDA would buy the plaque and hang it. Gilbert Miller died in his sleep and the IDA wanted to recognize his efforts in bringing the Noblis supercomputer to Danville.
The River District Association wants to refresh the Old ’97 mural on the side of the building when you enter downtown. Director Ernecia Coles talks to the board about it and after a few questions from some perpetually confused board members, she gets the permission. Ernecia has way more patience than I do.
We move on to the IDA approving the demolition of one of the warehouse on the 979 Lockett Drive property that Macerata Wheels was supposed to move in. They approve up to $150,000 for the work. They don’t mention if the building has asbestos problems or not. The next demolition request is for properties that the IDA bought on Airport Drive. Those properties are right at where the road takes a 90 degree turn to the right. After a little discussion, Richard Turner estimates that it won’t cost more than $35,000 to demolish what’s left on the land. The city will do the work and then bill the IDA for it. The board passes that 6-0 as well.
We now move to closed session and C.G. Hairston is lost again. Clarke Whitfield tells him that Richard Turner has the motion with the wording needed to do the closed session and tells Hairston to call on him. Sheesh. That’s finally done and all the media moves out of the room into the hallway.
40 minutes later, they open the doors and go back into open session. Instead of the outright purchase of the gas station across the street from the Danville Museum, the board votes and approves a 90 day option to buy. The vote is 5-1 with Shirley Primiano voting “No”. Hairston adjourns the meeting and I ask if the board has approved a price for the option and get the answer “No.” I then ask if the board at least approved a maximum price for the option. There’s another “No” answer for that. More questions later, I find out that the 90 day timeframe is to get a environmental study on the underground gas tanks to find out if there are any problems. That makes sense. I am still totally confident that the IDA will buy the property even if there are contamination issues.
And that’s it. We’re done here. Thanks for following our social media channels to get the latest information from the meeting, and thanks for reading the most detailed recap of today’s meeting. We’ve got more coming up on SouthsideCentral!
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