Greensboro alt-weekly Rhino Times editor John Hammer exposes the City Council’s plan to put a $100-plus million bond on the November ballot:
Certainly putting over $100 million worth of bonds on the ballot in November and raising property taxes by 4.75 cents is the public’s business. And if the City Council believed this would be met with widespread support it would have been discussed repeatedly at televised meetings. But it has never been discussed at a televised meeting; all the meetings to discuss the bond referendum have been in unannounced secret meetings behind closed doors. The public wasn’t even told these meetings were taking place, much less what was being discussed.
Hammer discusses in detail the various projects that a proposed bond—if passed by voters—-would fund. But here’s what jumped out at me:
Mid-Range Street Improvements include the A&Y Greenway $7 million. This is a project that City Councilmember Mike Barber said on Tuesday would be turned over to developer Marty Kotis to build. Barber said it would be faster and less expensive for Kotis, who plans a $50 million development along the Greenway in an area he calls Midtown, to complete the project.
Remember the N&R raised the possibility of a bond finish out the section of greenway behind Marty Kotis’ proposed development.
Another interesting item is public transportation needs, which includes $1.1 million for Transit Facility Improvements and Bus Shelters. As Hammer noted, Gboro just opened a fat—and I mean phat— new $18 million public transportation operations and maintenance facility in 2012—so—citizens “hope the building doesn’t already need extensive repairs and most of that money will be used for bus shelters.”
