This week’s Kinston City Council meeting only lasted 17 minutes, but the board felt there was significant progress made.
“Although the meeting was brief, it was still very productive,” Mayor Pro Tem Joe Tyson said. “We’re always looking at grants, which can be helpful to the city for our infrastructure and saves the citizens money. Our staff takes time to compose items for discussion, and then brief us.
“There may not be a lot of items on the agenda, but we needed to do some long range planning for the city. We’re always looking at the city budget and making sure we don’t exhaust all of our funds.”
One of the items on Monday’s agenda was the adoption of the resolution to apply for a sewer improvement grant for Smithfield-Kinston, LLC, which the council approved.
Smithfield will try to attain a $500,000 grant, which will be used to create 85 additional jobs between now and June 30, 2016. The plant has already retained 245 jobs earlier this year.
The City Council also approved the acceptance of the Community Transformational Grant, which will be used to help fund the Riverwalk, which would incorporate healthy living initiatives.
The $19,500 grant would also offset the cost of the current land use plan, which would provide additional money to focus on other acquisition strategies.
“We’re always looking for ways to maximize taxpayer dollars,” Kinston City Manager Tony Sears said. “Even if we’re making plans for 2015, we’re looking for the best methods available to maximize projects fitting within the parameters of grant.”
The proclamation of Public Power Week was also introduced to do the City Council, which will be from Oct. 6-12. Included in the week is the semi-annual energy fair, scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 10 a.m., to help Kinston residents lower their electric bills.
Parts of North Queen Street, Mitchell Street and Gordon Street will be shut down for the Community Family Affair on Saturday, Oct. 5. There will be a parade at 10 a.m., which is projected to last for about 30 minutes, which will block off the streets.
Kinston Mayor B.J. Murphy said even though the meeting was very short, there was necessary material brought up during the time.
“Every once in a while, we’ll have a light agenda,” Murphy said. “We took the opportunity to listen to the department heads. Kinston has its challenges, but it’s evident we have capable people managing day-to-day affairs.”
The next city council meeting will be held Monday, Oct. 7 at 5:30 p.m.
Junious Smith III can be reached at 252-559-1077 and Junious.Smith@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JuniousSmithIII.