Information Items:
For the third consecutive year, Neighborhood Development is partnering with World Changers to repair homes in selected inner-city neighborhoods in Charlotte. From June 16-23, approximately 250 teenagers from across the southeast will install roofs and paint houses for low-income and elderly residents in Washington Heights and Lincoln Heights. The volunteers, ages 12-20, will provide exterior painting, repair roofs, haul trash and make other light home repairs, such as fixing mailboxes and securing porch banisters.
Neighborhood Development will contribute up to $50,000 for building and construction materials. The Pineville location of Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse will provide a $9,600 grant to install fire extinguishers, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as offer 50 volunteers and assist with building materials. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will make E.E. Waddell High School available to house the volunteers during the week.
Council is invited to attend a closing celebration on Friday, June 22 at 5:00 pm. The celebration will be held at Lincoln Heights Elementary School, located at 1900 Newcastle Street. The closing celebration will provide an opportunity for guest speakers and will include the recognition of volunteers.
The World Changers organization has been working with municipalities, community agencies and businesses since 1990.
North Mecklenburg Radio Tower Outage
Staff Resource: Susan Johnson, 704-336-6252 - sjohnson@ci.charlotte.nc.us
A freak lightening strike near or on the North Mecklenburg Water Treatment plant caused a tremendous power surge into the City's radio tower equipment room and damaged well over 90% of the equipment causing the tower to go off the air. The tower itself is heavily grounded and protected from lightning activity; however this event did not hit the tower, but entered the equipment building through the ground based wiring overriding all power protection devices.
This damage is affecting portable radio coverage in the northern end of the county, which means that public safety officers in the northern towns as well as City staff operating in the north have only intermittent service if they are outside their vehicles. Radio services in mobile vehicles remain in operation as these setups have the extra power needed to send and receive from the City's other towers such as Sugar Creek or Southpoint. Staff reports that the towns are coping by putting two officers per vehicle instead of the usual one so that one officer is close to the mobile radio at all times.
At this time, staff has been able to repair approximately 75% of the equipment using special shipments from Motorola and scavenging other tower backup parts. The State of NC is also looking for equipment to loan the City to complete repairs and Motorola is expediting their manufacturing facility. We do not have a firm repair date/time right now as equipment availability for the balance of the burned out equipment is still uncertain. Staff will update the Council as these repairs proceed.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) will host two meetings on Tuesday, June 19, to discuss their plans for the widening of I-485 between Johnston Road and Interstate 77 in south Charlotte. The first meeting, for elected officials, will begin at 1:30 pm. The second meeting, for the general public, will allow citizens to drop-in between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm. The meetings will be held at the Town of Pineville's Hut Facility located at 413 Johnston Drive in Pineville.
The purpose of the meetings is to allow NCDOT representatives to provide information, answer questions and receive comments about the I-485 widening project.
The 2007-2013 State Transportation Improvement Program calls for construction to begin on the project in 2013.
Attached is a map highlighting the area of the proposed I-485 widening.
Mr. Tom Spratt recently requested permission to relocate four family headstones from Settlers Cemetery along with other family stones unearthed at Mercy Hospital, to Steele Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery. These stones with the names Robert McKnight, Esther Johnston, Catherine Peel, and James McKnight were originally placed in Settlers by the Charlotte City Council (Victor Shaw, Mayor) in 1953.
Since there were no remains associated with the headstones, the City Attorney's office determined they were part of City property, no council action was required, and the headstones could be removed with permission by the controlling department. Landscape Management gave Mr. Spratt permission to remove the headstones under the condition that no other headstones, monuments, plants, or other cemetery property were damaged, and that Mr. Spratt work with the Mecklenburg County Historical Society to install a plaque, monument, or other informational piece in place of the removed headstones that describes where they were relocated to. This will provide continuity to the numbered gravesite mapping system in Settlers Cemetery.
At present Mr. Spratt is working with a monument company to schedule the work and will coordinate with Landscape Management.
On Friday, June 15, 2007, the Civil Service Board is scheduled to hold an open hearing involving Officer Eric W. Garrison. The hearing will begin at 8:30 am in Room CH-14 of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center. The panel for the appeal hearing consists of: Norris Anderson, Rion Choate, Mary Hopper, Brenda Johnson, and Tom Sadler. General Sadler will chair the hearing. Officer Garrison has the right to change his mind up to the start of the hearing and ask for it to be conducted in closed session. Accordingly, we will provide the Mayor and Council with a summary of the allegations against Officer Garrison as soon as possible on Friday morning, assuming that the hearing remains open.
