Henderson Mayor Clem Seifert organizes the city’s state priorities.
Five city council members and Henderson Mayor Clem Seifert met in the City Hall Conference Room yesterday to discuss legislative and funding priorities to bring to the state delegation.
In addition to the mayor, council members Garry Daeke, Bobby Gupton, Lynn Harper, Lonnie Davis, and Mary Emma Evans were in attendance. City Manager Jerry Moss also attended the meeting. Council member Garry Daeke left forty minutes into the meeting due to a personal obligation.
The members began working from a list of priorities generated at the Priorities Setting Workshop Session of February 8, 2006. The list was organized by standing council committees, not including the now-defunct Search and Transition Committee.
Each item was assessed by attending members as one of six types of priorities: city, state, federal, city/state, city/federal, or city/state/federal. The mayor and council members discussed each item until a consensus was reached. Some items were added that did not appear on the original February 8 list.
The unranked working list included the following items:
* Library funding
* Airport
* Recreation funds and facilities
* Economic development
* Embassy Square
* Mayor’s Task Force on Housing
* Commercial Building Code
* Public housing
* Southeastern High Speed Rail
* Friends of Clean Up Henderson
* Sidewalks/Pedestrian Crossings
* Public Transportation
* Youth Activities
* Streets
* Sewer
* Regional water
* Inter-basin transfer
* Land Use Planning
* Armory
Land use planning, the inter-basin transfer, and the commercial building code were struck from the list because no money would be asked from the state in support of these items.
Members determined that $1,400,000 would be asked for sewer renovation, $500,000 would be requested for the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing, and $115,000 would be requested to fix the roof of the Armory. Council member Lynn Harper indicated she would request $100,000 for Clean-Up Henderson, reminding the members who were present that it was half of the money that she had been promised by the state from the previous year.
Harper also indicated that there is a need for public transportation, especially to Vance-Granville Community College and the Aycock Recreation Complex.
“I believe unless you get some these other things fixed that this ain’t happening,” the mayor said, indicating the “economic development” item he had written on the white board.
Seifert outlined a plan to put together a PowerPoint presentation that highlights the above items and present it to state legislators Representative Michael Wray, Senator Doug Berger, and Representative Jim Crawford over dinner. The date of that presentation is tentatively set for April 27, 6:00 p.m. The location is to be announced.