City councilors voted Tuesday to send another $150,000 to the convention center’s business development fund.
Two weeks ago council voted to give the fund an additional $150,000 for the convention center and visitors’ bureau to give incentives to bring new business to the convention center during this fiscal year. They also voted to give the fund $316,000 to bring the National Hockey League All-Star Game to Raleigh early next year.
This second round of $150,000 will be for the next fiscal year. The convention center is a city-county partnership and Mayor Charles Meeker told his fellow council members they should approve the additional funding “in order to stay in sync with the county.”
Councilors voted 6-1 for approval, with District D’s Thomas Crowder voting against.
Website usability
Since the new city website went live a couple months ago, conversations among city staff, elected officials and frequent site users have been swirling about how to make it better.
At-large councilor Russ Stephenson has criticized the site for being hard to use. Now Stephenson wants to set up a group to look at how to improve the new site. He proposed a task force with council members, tech-savvy residents and city staff to figure out how to make the city’s web portal more user friendly.
City Manager Russell Allen said the city would specifically look at how to improve the search function on the site.
Grease dumping rewards
Be on the lookout for companies dumping grease into the sewers and storm drains—you could get a $1,000 reward.
Councilors approved a new program Tuesday to reward residents whose reports lead to the arrest and conviction of people illegally dumping grease from a business into the city sewer system.
Grease has a nasty habit of clogging sanitary sewer systems pipes. The city manager said that there are certain manholes in the city where they know companies are dumping grease, which can be expensive for the city to clean up.
Sending grease into the sewers can also cause them to overflow, causing an environmental mess that the city is responsible for cleaning up.
Update from the preview
All three items listed in the Record’s council preview were approved. The city is getting a $1.3 million federal grant to improve broadband access to low-income areas. And city staff will start figuring out a way to allow residents to opt out of receiving phone books. Read more here.
