According to a cover memorandum by Interim City Manager Ed Wyatt, the Embassy Performing Arts Center Grant Application is 85% complete.
City of Henderson Planning & Community Development Director Erris Dunston told Home in Henderson that the application would be completed and released no later than Friday, August 15, 2008.
The application lists the proposed performance hall as an “innovative activity” and states that 8,532 households are in need.
There were 6,332 households in Henderson at the time of the 2000 census. Home in Henderson believes that the 8,532 figure represents the total number of households in Henderson at the present time.
A public hearing on the application is scheduled for August 18, 2008 during a rescheduled City Council meeting. It is unknown specifically why the meeting was rescheduled.
The application contains letters of endorsement from North Carolina Senator Doug Berger, North Carolina Representatives Michael Wray and James Crawford, Vance County Commission Chair Danny Wright, Executive Director of the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments Timothy Baynes, Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce President Bill Edwards, and Vance County Superintendent of Schools Norman Shearin. However, it does not contain the questions and answers that former Henderson City Council member Elissa Yount had asked the city to include in the application during the first public hearing on the grant on June 9, 2008.
According to Yount, public hearing comments should be included as part of the application process.
Home in Henderson had made a request to Acting City Clerk Beverly Jackson for all correspondence received by the city regarding the Embassy project grant. Since the request was made after regular business hours on Friday, it is doubtful that a response will be received before the public hearing scheduled for Monday.