The drama that highlighted the last Greensboro City Council meeting did not happen Monday night. The move to oust City Manager Jarvis Sims was not even mentioned.
That may or may not have been connected to an unusual one-hour executive session called for at the start of the meeting. Executive sessions, where the public is required to vacate the meeting room, do happen but almost exclusively at the end of the meeting.
The council called the session to discuss, in private, a personnel item and a real estate item, which they are allowed to do in most cases according to the Georgia Open Meetings law.
The council took no action when members of the public were allowed back for the regular meeting. After the meeting was finished, Councilmember Jontavius Smith, who initiated the effort to ask the city manager to resign two weeks ago, would not comment on the executive session.
When asked what happened to his move to get rid of the city manager, he said “Stay tuned.”
Otherwise, the city council meeting was a parade of year-end reports about development and zoning.
Cail Hammons, of the city’s downtown development office, reported statistics from the Georgia tourism office that in all of Greene County $45 million was spent on lodging in the past year. Beverage and food sales generated $34 million in revenue and $15 million was spent in retail sales across the county.
Hammons said that her department calculated that from January to November of this year, $657,950 was invested into the downtown Greensboro area from public and private investments, including real estate sales.
Kendrick Ward, who manages the city’s Main Street program, listed six downtown events either produced or supported by the city development office. The Southland Jubilee in April included arts and crafts, food street vendors and what she called a record-breaking number of participants in the car show.
“We actually ran out of space for cars this year,” she said.
Other events were Moonlight on Main which featured fireworks and this month’s Lighting of the Tree next to Festival Hall. She also played a series of video commercials they produced that promote downtown and its businesses, although she did not indicate when or where the ads could be seen.
The complete 2023 Annual Report can be found on the Office of Downtown Development website at Downtown GreensboroGA.com.
Also Monday night, the city council approved an additional $4,000 for the acquisition of right of way in front of some businesses downtown for streetscape improvements on Broad Street and a small portion of West Street. The project will create sidewalks and pedestrian walkways using major funding from the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Program.
Improvements will run from the Oconee Brewery on West Street for one block south to Broad Street. From there, they will continue along West Broad Street to East Broad Street at the intersection with Siloam Road.
Hal Chitwood of Bureau Veritas, the company Greensboro contracts with to act on zoning issues and enforcement for the city, told council members that $68,526 in permit fees have been paid to the city so far this year. Most of that came from the city’s major development projects, primarily in the Oconee Town Center just south of the I-20 interchange.
He also indicated a new residential property along Oconee Avenue will go before the city’s planning and zoning board next month.
“This is a property that is located next to the Cottages at Baynes Creek,” Chitwood said. “They will be requesting to annex 52.3 acres for a residential development. This is a Habitat for Humanity development that the Greene County Habitat is working in conjunction with the Baynes Creek development.”
Chitwood also said projects for 2024 include revising and bringing up to date the Greensboro zoning map as well as revising and updating the city’s zoning ordinances, which he said had not been done since 2008.