Read the full agenda for the August 4 council meeting below.
Two years after a fire destroyed the Latta House, city council will receive a report from the Historic Districts Commission and an archeological consultant about the history of the property.
The Latta House, founded in 1892, was a coeducational university serving freed slaves in Raleigh’s Oberlin Road neighborhood. More than 100 years later, all that remained was one of the main buildings, the Latta House, and a well on the property. After the house burned down two years ago, the owner sold it to the city and the property is now on its way to becoming a park.
The Historic Districts Commission will present the findings from the archeological and cultural survey to council.
Stimulus Grants
Broadband Expansion Grant
City council could approve an application to go forward to apply for $3.4 million to expand broadband internet access to low-income areas of the city. The grant program is part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and the city would be a co-applicant along with the 1 Economy Corporation on the grant.
The grant would pay for broadband connections for 3,000 multifamily units in low-income areas. The grant application would include funding for 15 computer centers and to support a “Digital Connectors” program for younger community members to go out and train people who don’t know how to use computers or the internet.
Geothermal Energy
The City’s Solid Waste Services Department wants council approval to apply for a US Department of Energy grant to install a geothermal energy system at its Wilders Grove Landfill facility. The city would have to chip in half of the funds for the $2.6 million system. See the grant application below.
Geothermal energy uses the steady temperature inside the earth to heat and cool buildings. The process involved drilling holes into the earth and circulating water through the system.
RDU Runway Rehab
The Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority has been approved for another stimulus grant, this time it’s $1.6 million to repave a runway. This brings the total federal funding for the runway rehab project at RDU to $7 million. Read the memo from the airport authority to the city below.
