City Council voted Tuesday to accept a grant of $21,250 to help stabilize and restore the exterior of a house at 864 Pine St. Once a fine Italianate example in the Old West End Historic District, the house is now plagued with rotting wood and a leaking roof due to years of neglect and vacancy.
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources awarded the grant. The City is required to match the grant. The matching share will be met by transferring $21,250 from the budget for the blight removal program.
City staff believes the rehabilitation and stabilization of the house will be a beacon of light for Pine Street and the Old West End neighborhood by encouraging property owners and potential investors to restore other historic houses.
In other action, Council voted to:
• accept an arts grant of $5,000 to be distributed to local arts organizations.
• approve an easement that will allow Lumos Networks to connect to the City’s multimedia service access point at Galileo High School on Ridge Street. Lumos Networks is a fiber-based service provider to businesses. The easement will allow Lumos Networks to install additional fiber optic cables in order to expand its service.
• approve changes to allow for additional pilots to be appointed to the Danville Regional Airport Commission. The changes also increase to four the number of terms so the maximum eligibility for Airport Commission board members will be consistent with other City commissions and boards.
• appoint John Thacker to the Danville Community Policy and Management Team to represent Danville Public Schools.
Council also met Tuesday in two work sessions. The first work session, which preceded Council’s regular business session, was a special called meeting of City Council to discuss the search for a city manager to replace Joe King, who is retiring Nov. 30. Council is seeking sealed proposals from qualified consultants to perform executive search services for candidates for the position of city manager. The consultant selected would furnish assistance to the Council to identify and develop a list of desirable candidates based upon a profile.
Following its business session, Council held a second work session to hear two presentations: 1) employee and retiree benefit changes for 2016, and 2) comparison of the City’s employee retirement system vs. the Virginia Retirement System. Council also discussed limiting the number of terms that board members of the Industrial Development Authority can serve. No limit is currently in place.
River City TV airs live all Council business sessions. The first rebroadcast will be at 8 p.m. Thursday. Watch it on cable (Comcast channel 10 and Gamewood channel 122) or streaming at RiverCityTV.org. The taped broadcast is available now on the City’s YouTube channel -- DanvilleVAGov.
River City TV does not air work sessions, but they are open to the public.