THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 3, 1995 TAG: 9510030257
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
The city will spend $4,000 to study whether its decaying downtown fire station can be rebuilt.
About a year after the site was determined unlivable and was ruled out as a home for a fire station, a 5-1 vote revived the possibility Monday.
Council member David Bosomworth cast the only dissenting vote, saying that working on the old station would be ``throwing good money after bad.''
The other council members decided in August to re-examine the downtown site, even after rezoning a site a mile north so that a station could be built there. Early studies of property on Knobbs Creek Drive suggest that a station could be built there, as the council agreed to do this spring.
Voting with council member Lloyd Griffin on his motion to conduct the study were Myrtle Rivers, Anita Hummer, Dorothy Stallings and Pete Hooker. Council members A.C. Robinson and Jimi Sutton were absent.
Also Monday, the council reluctantly approved a $9.3 million bid to construct a wastewater treatment plant.
The plant is about half of the city's $21 million water-sewer overhaul to increase the capacity and quality of water delivered to residents.
The low bid, from Adams Robinson Enterprises Inc. of Dayton, Ohio, came in about $3 million higher than initial estimates two years ago. A representative of Piedmont, Olsen, Hensley engineers explained Monday that new state requirements and city additions to the project, as well as higher equipment and concrete costs, drove up the price.
The bid was high enough to concern council members, who balked when it was first brought to them last month.
They grilled engineers on the changes Monday before voting to proceed. Acting City Manager Victor Sharpe said the council would be able to complete the project within its budget, although rates in 1996 would have to be higher than originally projected.
Sharpe said details on an adjusted rate structure probably would be available at the Oct. 23 meeting.
In other business, nearly 40 residents turned out to oppose a zoning change for a proposed subdivision on the south side of Evergreen Drive.
The residents said they feared the subdivision, to adjoin the existing Briarwood subdivision, would upset the peace and safety of their neighborhood.
Before the council could act on the proposal, developer Charles W. Haskett withdrew his request for the zoning change, citing business reasons.
Mayor H. Rick Gardner congratulated the group, one of the largest to attend a council meeting in at least two years, for its participation.
``We're certainly not unapproachable, nor are we unwilling at any time to listen to the concerns of the citizens,'' Gardner said. by CNB