City councilors voted in closed session to settle dispute with Club Envy and close the New Bern Avenue club that has been the scene of a 2007 murder along with a number of assaults, stabbings and weapons violations.
Council decided to try to shut down the club last month by having a judge declare it a public nuisance.
The manager and the company operating the club agreed to not hold any ownership in companies in Raleigh. They also agreed to not to “maintain a nuisance” anywhere else in North Carolina.
The manager, Benjamin Becker, agreed to not operate a nightclub in Raleigh again.
The settlement also charges the manager and the operating company, Bowties Restaurant Group LLC, $18,400 in investigation and legal costs. But if the two do not violate the settlement for five years then that fee will be waived.
Remote ops funding
Councilors passed a $30-million bond package this week, funding part of the Solid Waste Services Department’s new remote operations facilities. The bond measure will go to a public hearing on July 20 and require another vote for final approval.
The remote ops project had been tied to the funding for the proposed $205-million public safety center. But the 17-story Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center has been unable to get approval so council pulled these other projects from the package and started approving them this week.
The remote operations facilities plan will put garbage collection centers around the city so Solid Waste Services trucks will not all have to go to one central location.
City Manager Russell Allen had originally proposed $50 million for the remote ops projects, but said that $30 million of that was for projects that already had council approval.
Mayor Charles Meeker suggested approving the $30 million and holding off on the rest “because we don’t know what we’re going to do with the Lightner Center.”
John Odom, one of the four councilors opposed to the current public safety center design, told Meeker he opposed the center and council should approve the full $50 million.
The mayor’s motion won out at the end of the debate and a 6-2 vote approved the $30 million bond package, with Odom and Bonner Gaylord voting against.
The public hearing will be during the next council meeting on July 20 at 1 p.m.
Latta House
The site of the Latta House, a reconstruction-era black school, is now a city historic landmark. Council voted Tuesday to give the designation to the site just off Oberlin Road near Cameron Village.
A fire destroyed the house, the last remaining building from the school, in January 2007.
The site is in the process of being converted to a park.
Microwave radiation
Following a request from a Raleigh resident last month, city councilors voted this week to ask the Federal Communications Commission to look into issues of people getting sick from radiation caused by cell phone towers and other wireless technology.
Andrew McAfee, representing Professionals with Microwave Radiation Sickness, asked council to set up a task force to investigate the issue and stop expansion of the city’s wireless network during a meeting in June.
Councilors decided not to do their own investigation but voted to ask the FCC to look into problems caused by microwave radiation.
