Thoughts about the Hickory City Council meeting of October 7, 2014

There were two main issues of interest on the agenda this evening. The first was a brief discussion of the termination of The Economic Development Agreement between MAB American and Hickory Inc. It was MAB American's choice to walk away from the agreement. According to City Manager Berry, they were willing to market the property, but they were unwilling to fulfill the option that was stipulated in the original agreement. The Mayor asked if anyone else was in favor of pursuing the $900,000 offer that was proposed by Kathryn Grethouse at the March 18, 2014 meeting.

Remember at the March 18, 2014 City Council meeting that Kathryn Greathouse came forward and said someone wanted to purchase the 10 acre site attached to the Cloninger Mill Park and keep it as part of the park. Are they still willing to do this or was this a gambit to keep another grocer from coming into the area?

Maybe I missed it, but there was no indication that the city would pursue this offer. Personally, I will be surprised if the offer still exists. Since this was an informational item, there was no action that needed to be taken.

The second major issue was the Departmental Report in relation to a parking lot being built at the Transportation Insight site. The City is entering an economic development agreement to build the parking lot with Transportation Insight as a joint venture under the guise that it will be a public parking area and in off hours the public will have access to that parking. The city will also pay to mitigate the stormwater runoff issues associated with that property.

We will see, but my sense is that the city will use the Parking Fund to pay its part of the enhanced infrastructure. That is the reason why they are all the sudden saying that this is a Downtown Development project. They may even utilize Bond Referendum money for similar projects along this corridor should it pass.

I will put out a more thorough report shortly.