29 Aug City Manager’s Report - August 23, 2021
The following is a summary of City Manager Bill Prokop’s Report to City Council on August 23:
- The County Finance Committee approved a cost sharing with the City yesterday at their meeting of 90/10% with the County allowing the use of Walmart impact fees $78,860 to be used and the City will pick up the balance of $8780.00. We hope to have the preliminary report by the end of November and the final by the end of the year. We very much appreciate the County assisting us with this study.
- Our Police Department had their interviews with the DOJ’s office and as we stated earlier our PD was selected as being a model of “Diversity” within Police Departments across the county. As the Chief has stated time and time again, “we hire the best and most qualified for the job, and our criteria is based on ethical questions” we never hire to meet a quota.
- We are making some minor improvements to our marina in anticipation of the Dragon Boat races that will be coming up on Labor Day weekend. We will be making so improvements to the “Dingy Dock” and in a few weeks also to “H” dock. These improvements are temporary in nature, but will be good for the next few years. The new Transient Dock and fire suppression system will be installed in November and it looks like the new Day Dock will follow the following year, due to approval delays and construction timing. In the meantime, we will begin preparing a long-term “Marina improvement Plan”. This will take us into the next budget year and beyond. We will be working with our marina operation/harbormaster in gathering all the necessary data.
- A fast update on “Commercial Development” as of this morning we have 35 individual projects permitted, under review, or under consideration. That includes the possibility of 5 new hotels. To say we have interest in Beaufort is a real fact. We are looking forward to finalizing many of these projects as quickly as possible.