COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 19, 2012

We had another light agenda at last night's meeting.  The meeting was preceded by a work session which involved a presentation from Jack Bobo and Mainland Properties. 

The Riverview Project has been broken down into  three phases.  The first will be retail, and include the parking garage, the second will be rental apartments, and finally condos.  This was changed because of the economy and the banks' reluctance to finance large projects at this time, especially condos.  Mainland has seen interest from several local banks, so that is good news.  The design has changed also, two new archtecutal firms have been hired, Studio A and QK4, both from Louisville.  There is less plaza space and the buildings are closer in design to the existing downtown buildings.  They are hoping to break ground in the next couple of months.

The only agenda item in the regular meeting was an Ordinance to increase the number members of the Bicentennial Commission from five to nine.  With the Bicentennial so close, CM Zurschmeide said the members expressed a need for more members.  There was a unaminous vote on the first two readings.  CM Caesar suggested that David Barksdale be added to the Commission.

On another topic there will be a meeting Monday at 6:30 at Slate Run School for a discussion on the Master Plan for our sewer and stormwater projects.  CM Coffey will again be the moderator and requests as much public input as possible.  Please try to attend. 

OFF AND RUNNING

We had a light agenda at last night's council meeting.  The only Resolution was concerning a tax abatement for Jones Popcorn.  They need to purchase equipment for a new line and expect to hire 15 more people.

The "real" work will begin at our next regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 19.

I also want to congratulate our new Council President, Diane Benedetti and VP, Kevin Zurschmeide.  We have a good group of council members and we have pledged  to work together and help make New Albany a better place to live and work.