Monday, March 19
1:30 pm - Budget Committee Meeting, Room 280. AGENDA: Review March 29 Budget Retreat Agenda; Employee Pay and Benefits; Utilities Budget
3:30 pm - Environment Committee Meeting, Room 280
AGENDA: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction; Enterprise Fund Review: Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities Budget
5:00 pm - Council Manager Dinner Briefing, Room CH-14
6:00 pm - Zoning Meeting, Meeting Chamber
Wednesday, March 21
1:30 pm - Housing & Neighborhood Development Committee Meeting, Rooms 270/271. AGENDA: Foreclosures and Predatory Lending; Neighborhood Councils
3:30 pm - Economic Development and Planning Committee Meeting, Room 280. AGENDA: Business Corridor Revitalization Strategic Plan; Economic Development Grant for IKEA; Discuss April 18 Economic Development and Planning Committee Meeting
Thursday, March 22
11:00 am - Community Safety Committee Meeting, Room 280. AGENDA: Mounted Patrol Unit; Neighborhood Watch Program; Proposed Hotel/Motel Ordinance
Friday, March 23
9:00 am - City Council Retreat, Room CH-14
12:00 pm - Planning Liaison Committee - Planning Department Joint Luncheon, Room 267
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Workforce Development Board (WDB), in collaboration with the Centralina WDB, the Gaston County WDB, the Charlotte Regional Partnership and Central Piedmont Community College is preparing a grant proposal for the US Department of Labor's (DOL) Workforce Innovation Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Initiative. The goal of the WIRED Initiative is to expand employment and advancement opportunities for workers and create high-skill and high-wage opportunities in regional economies. The WIRED Initiative focuses on the role of talent development in driving regional economic competitiveness, job growth and new opportunities for American workers.
The WIRED Initiative fits the goals of the Economic Development Strategic Framework in the following areas:
- Creating employment and training partnerships with local colleges and universities to train workers for technology industries.
- Developing alternative school/career partnerships with a focus on skills training and drop out prevention.
- Linking workforce development efforts to support and establish referral links for job training and placement in regional target industries.
The WIRED Initiative also addresses the goals of the Business Corridor Revitalization Plan by providing training resources for entrepreneurship and small business development programs in distressed corridors.
If the grant is successful, it would total $5 million over a three (3) year period.
Under the WIRED initiative, the Governor will select two (2) proposals from North Carolina to submit to Washington for consideration by April 13, 2007.
On Friday, March 16, CATS will host 30 transit workers from Dublin, Ireland. The group consists of bus operators, bus maintenance staff and supervisors. The event will take place at the South Tryon Bus Facility, located at 3145 South Tryon Street where the group will meet staff and
tour the operational and maintenance features of the facility. CATS looks forward to this open exchange of information and sharing ideas with their counterparts from Ireland. The transit workers from Dublin will serve as Grand Marshals of Charlotte's 11th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday, March 17.
In recent weeks, there have been several suspicious fires at the vacant Westwood Apartments, 1862 Fleetwood Drive, in the vicinity of Berryhill Road and Freedom Drive. The original intent of the contractor retained to demolish the units was to flatten and remove the debris one structure at a time. Representatives from the Fire Department have spoken to the contractor and they have agreed to demolish all of the 25 remaining units at once and then remove the debris. We anticipate the final units will be flattened on or before Friday, March 16, 2007.
