Council to hold public hearing
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on February 14, 2016 1:45 AM
There will be one public hearing at Monday night's Goldsboro City Council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the City Council chambers of City Hall.
The hearing will deal with a rezoning request from Patrick Gallagher that would rezone property on the east side of Leslie Street between Mulberry Street and Walnut Street. This area is currently marked as a residential zone, and the applicant is requesting the zoning be switched to a general business conditional district.
Gallagher currently resides on the property with his wife, and wants to use the property as both a private residence and a place of entertainment with ABC permit.
The applicant has proposed renting out two structures on his property for events such as weddings, birthday parties and fundraisers.
Goldsboro's comprehensive land-use plan recommends the area be developed as high-density residential property, as opposed to being an area with businesses in it.
There are six structures that exist on the property in question:
1) A 5,647-square-foot building that serves as the applicant's primary dwelling.
2) A 2,251-square-foot building that is proposed to serve as the main events center.
3) A 1,200-square-foot guest house maintained as a guest house.
4) A pool house.
5) A greenhouse.
6) A 3,000-square-foot metal building used for storage.
No action will be taken on the matter immediately following the public hearing, and the planning commission will return a recommendation to the council on March 7.
There are several expenditures slated for approval if the council passes its consent agenda for Monday night as it currently reads.
The city is expected to award a bid for the next phase of its ongoing Stoney Creek sewer outfall rehabilitation project.
Seven sealed bids were received for the scope of work on Feb. 9.
The work consists of rehabilitating 2,650 linear feet of 24-inch gravity sewer line, 720-linear-feet of 30-inch gravity sewer line, 7,585-linear-feet of 42-inch gravity sewer line, 180-linear-feet of 48-inch gravity sewer line and rehabilitating 530-vertical-feet of 5-foot diameter manholes. The work also consists of adjusting 40 manhole riser assemblies, installing 16 manhole vents with stainless steel insect screens and miscellaneous work on construction entrances and erosion control methods.
Insituform Technologies, LLC, of Monroe, is expected to be awarded the contract for the work after submitting the low bid of $2,674,612.50. This money will be taken out of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan.
The city is expected to award an additional $99,500 for sewer rehabilitation work being perform by McKim and Creed as part of Phase III of the city's ongoing sewer rehabilitation work throughout the city.
This work will consist of completing a flow assessment of the city's sewer lines by way of a closed circuit television assessment, which will ideally help the city gain a more comprehensive analysis of inflow sources in its overall basin.
In the first step towards rehabilitating the city's failing water meter reading systems, the City Council is expected to authorize the purchase of two handheld meter reading devices that will accompany the new meter reading system once that system is installed.
These will cost $35,180, and the money is expected to come from the city's Utility Fund.
The City Council is also expected to authorize installment financing in the amount of $350,000 for the purpose of updating the city's electronics network.
The money will be used to buy 280 new desktop computers, 35 laptops, six servers, three storage area network servers and five pieces of network equipment.
This purchase will be funded in the form of a loan, which the city will have to pay back over a four year period at an interest of 2.65 percent.
There will be a closing fee of $2,800 that accompanies the loan and the first payment on the loan will come due in Sept. 2016.
There are also two street closures on the City Council's consent agenda for approval.
The first street closure slated for approval is for the Three Eagles Beer Festival on April 16. South Center Street between East Chestnut Street and East Spruce Street is expected to be closed from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. that day.
Goldsboro is hosting the North Carolina Main Street Conference from March 16 to March 18, and the 100 block of South Center Street will be closed from March 15 at 8 a.m. until March 18 at 6:30 a.m.
The council will hold its work session on Monday night at 5 p.m. in room 206 of the City Hall annex to discuss these issues and more.