REF: City Manager s Weekly FYI ~ Week Ending April 29, 2016

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1 TO: FROM: Mayor and Members of the City Council Rich Olson, City Manager REF: City Manager s Weekly FYI ~ Week Ending April 29, 2016 COPY: Distribution 1. City staff has been hard at work over the past few months preparing three grant applications to fund the purchase of the Elizabeth City Shipyard property. As reported previously, this property has a purchase price of $1,200,000. Staff will submit our third and final grant application on Monday, May 2 to the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF). The PARTF grant application was originally slated to be $200,000; however, after several meetings with PARTF representatives in the last few weeks, staff decided to increase our grant request to $300,000. City staff was notified on Wednesday, April 27 that our CAMA grant application in the amount of $180,000 to assist with this purchase has been pre-approved. That application will now move to the second phase of the approval process. The City must provide additional information to support the CAMA application before August 1. The final notification for CAMA grant approval is scheduled for September The City submitted an $800,000 grant application to the Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF) in March. Justin Mercer, who is the Eastern Field Representative for the CWMTF, has been in contact with me to advise that he will be in town to visit the Shipyard site in the next few weeks. If all three grant applications are approved, the City will be able to cross match funds from the three grant sources. By doing so, the City will not have any local funds involved with this property purchase. 2. The City of Elizabeth City has received an offer to purchase 5.77 acres of the total 27 acres in Phase I of the Aviation Park from the United States Coast Guard (USCG). This is the parcel previously used by DRS as a parking lot; and is located across Consolidated Road from the former DRS hangars. The City presently has a lease with the Coast Guard for the entire 27 acres. The lease was assigned by DRS to the Coast Guard as part of the sale of their facilities to the USCG. In anticipation of the USCG acquiring this tract, the City hired Shackelford and Associates to perform an appraisal of the property in question. Shackelford and Associates values the property at $1,970,000. The Coast Guard s offer to purchase this property was $861,120. The City provided the Coast Guard a copy of the Shackelford appraisal and requested a copy of the appraisal performed on the property for the USCG. The Coast 1

2 Guard s appraisal was received this afternoon. Staff will perform a comparative analysis of the two appraisals, and prepare a recommendation for the City Council s consideration. 3. This week, the Elizabeth City Police Department received notification from the Governor s Crime Commission, a division of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, that our application has been tentatively approved for a 2016 Local Law Enforcement Block Grant in the amount of $6,050. This particular grant does not require matching funding on the City s part. We intend to use this funding to make improvements to the Department s Interview Room by supplying material and labor to sound-proof the walls, install video and audio equipment, and to enhance the environment overall to be more conducive when conducting interviews. Official notification for this block grant is expected to be received by August Also this week, Police Department staff submitted a grant application to the Department of Justice - Bureau of Justice Assistance for $25,000 to acquire additional body worn cameras. These cameras will be assigned to our officers who are in specialized divisions, including Criminal Investigations, Drug Enforcement, the Gang & Violence Reduction Unit, and Community Policing. This particular grant is extremely competitive and only 16 grant awards will be given nationwide to medium-sized police departments. In our application, staff emphasized the fact that a Body Worn Camera Program is already in existence; and outlined the steps taken in creating a solid program, including participation by our stakeholders. This grant application seeks funding for 25 additional cameras. If funded, a 50/50 match by the City will be required. Notification of award is not anticipated until approximately October of this year. I am pleased that the Police Department continues to make strides in improving operations through grant funding. 5. I received notice this week from the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA) that they have completed their true-up calculation for the City s 2015 Power Agency Avoided Costs. The avoided cost calculation is called for under Sections 3.6(b), 6.1 and 6.2 of the Peaking Power Purchase Agreement between the City and the NCEMPA. This agreement is no longer in effect due to the sale of our generating assets to Duke Energy Progress last year. This year s true-up is $47,196 and represents the credit the City will receive for a partial year. Last year s true-up credit was $86,747.94, but was based on the calculation for an entire year. The City s power bill for April will reflect this year s final true-up credit. 6. During the Albemarle Regional Planning Organization (ARPO) meeting held on April 27, 2016, points were assigned to proposed regional highway projects. The ARPO decided to place points on projects from the highest scoring Strategic Prioritization Office of Transportation (SPOT) score on down the list until all 1300 local input points had been allocated. Projects having the greatest likelihood of being funded were scored higher. Using this scoring method, ARPO could only score points on 13 projects. Points were placed on highway projects in Pasquotank, Perquimans, Camden, Currituck, Dare, and 2

3 Chowan Counties. No points were given to regional highway projects in Gates County, as they did not score high enough. The counties of Hyde and Washington did not have any regional highway projects on which to place points. The list of all regional projects can be found here. The local projects are the last three on the list, numbers H150618, H and H Results indicating which projects are to be funded will be shared in late January When funding is announced, so will the projected timeline for construction. I am excited to report that Pasquotank County has three high scoring projects that may score high enough to be funded. These three projects include reconfiguration of the US Highway 17 South/Oak Stump Road (SR 1145) intersection so as to improve traffic flow and safety. This particular intersection has been a source of concern for local officials for quite some time. 7. The Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County Parks and Recreation Department, in conjunction with Healthy Carolinians of the Albemarle, is very excited to announce our upcoming Golden Shoes event. In an effort to promote physical activity, twenty golden shoes will be hidden in our public parks in Elizabeth City on or around June 1, Once the shoes are found, they can be taken to the Downtown Waterfront Market on Saturday, June 11 and exchanged for a prize! In addition to receiving a prize, all lucky winners will be entered into a drawing for a Kitty Hawk Maritime Forest/Safari River Kayak Tour for two, which is a $90 value. This grand prize is being donated by Kitty Hawk Kites. Additional details will be announced soon. In the interim, however, more information can be obtained by sending an to amanda.betts@arhs-nc.org. 8. With the arrival of spring, numerous events will be held for our citizens enjoyment. In an effort to provide easy access to event information, links have been added at the bottom of the City s website homepage ( Currently, there is a link to the Convention and Visitors Bureau monthly events calendar. Also, links have been provided to the NC Potato Festival s website (scheduled for May ), as well as the Downtown Waterfront Market website. The market opens for the 2016 season on Saturday, May 7. Check our website often to find out what s happening around town and join in the fun! 9. One of the targeted businesses that the City is exploring for our downtown area is a microbrewery/restaurant. The City has been contacted by several potential businesses that would like to do an adaptive reuse of some of our downtown buildings. Partnering with ElectriCities, the City will be sending EC-PC Economic Development Commission Director Wayne Harris to the Craft Brewing Conference and Expo being held next week in Philadelphia. 3

4 This is the premier conference that most microbrewers attend to discuss business opportunities, product design and marketing. A number of the participants are looking at emerging markets, such as Elizabeth City, for expansion. Brenda Daniels, ElectriCities Economic Development Manager, will accompany Wayne to the conference. ElectriCities is underwriting part of his expenses. I have been told that this is a great conference with samples provided! 10. City staff contacted the new owners of the Harbor Lights building (a.k.a. the Hurdle Hardware building) concerning the progress of their multi-use redevelopment project. The owners have hired a consultant so as to apply for NC Tax Credits. State representatives visited the site and a response regarding qualification is anticipated in a couple of weeks. The owners are still searching for a general contractor to do the renovation work. The owners have indicated that once the opportunity for tax credits is determined, they plan to start on exterior renovations to the structure. 11. Good news more off-street parking is now available Downtown! With the transition of our public safety personnel to their E. Main Street location, the parking lot located between N. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and N. McMorrine Street is available for public parking. Parking of City of Elizabeth City fleet vehicles has been relocated to the parking areas directly behind City Hall, freeing up the opportunity for shoppers and patrons of businesses in the area to use the 17 open parking spaces located in the parking lot opposite the municipal complex. The public should be mindful that parking spaces being rented are clearly marked and restricted from short-term hourly use by the general public. Overnight parking is not allowed by City Code. This freeing up of spaces for general parking should alleviate some of the parking pressures experienced over the last couple of years. Once the bridge work and Elizabeth Street streetscape enhancement projects are complete, the City will reevaluate and possibly reinstitute on-street parking in this area as well. Shopkeepers and residents in the Downtown area interested in renting offstreet parking spaces from the City are welcome to contact Customer Service Representative April Onley at (252) This week, I renewed the City s annual agreement with the Department of Corrections (DOC) for inmate labor. This is the 12 th year that the City has had an agreement with the DOC to utilize inmate labor. The agreement calls for the City to have 10 inmates daily, which costs the City $2,600 per year. The City pays our employees a $1.00 per hour differential if they are certified to supervise inmate workers. The City saves $187,200 annually by utilizing inmate labor. If an issue arises with an inmate, the DOC immediately removes that individual. Over the past 11 years, we have had only a few isolated instances whereby an inmate had to be removed. 13. During the City Council meeting of February 22, 2016, the Council authorized City staff to submit a CAMA grant application for $15,000 to help cover the costs of developing a Waterfront Master Plan. The anticipated cost for this plan is $25,000. Developing the plan represents Goal 6F of the Council s 4

5 adopted goals and objectives for fiscal year On Monday, I received notice that the City s grant application was not successful. Ten applications were submitted to CAMA totaling $150,000; and only $75,000 was available to fund these planning grants. The fiscal year recommended City budget does reflect proposed income from this grant in the amount of $15,000, with a corresponding expenditure of $25,000. I will discuss this budget issue during the May 2, 2016 Budget Work Session to seek the Council s pleasure regarding development of this plan during our coming fiscal year. 14. As reported in last Friday s FYI, tomorrow (Saturday, April 30) from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., the Elizabeth City Police Department and the Pasquotank County Sheriff s Office will partner to conduct Operation Medicine Take Back. The event will take place at the Elizabeth City Public Safety Facility located at 305 E. Main Street. This community policing initiative and crime prevention program is designed to receive unused or unwanted prescription medicines and dispose of them in a safe, controlled manner. Opiate addiction continues to be a community problem that has affected neighborhoods across our nation. In recent years, particularly in rural North Carolina, the problem has gotten worse. By getting these and other prescription medicines out of circulation, the likelihood of them being stolen or illegally used can be reduced. I encourage everyone to take advantage of this free service. Additional information can be obtained by calling ECPD Officer T.J. Mitchell at (252) Upcoming Event Reminders: City Council Budget Work Session on Monday, May 2 at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers. Click here to view the agenda for this meeting. The meeting will be broadcast live on Time Warner Cable Channels 11 and 1303 and will also be available by live-streaming from the homepage of our website ( RCO/vdw 5