City Council approves center, businesses on
Patterson; Business 40 path also closer to reality
by todd luck
the Chronicle
A new community center and business
es will be coming to Patterson Avenue
after the Winston-Salem City Council
approved a rezoning request at its Monday,
April 4 meeting.
The former 7-Up bottling company
building at 1800 N. Patterson Ave. was
rezoned to allow its current owner, Mercy
Rahma, Inc., to renovate it for a variety of
uses. Azzat Amer, president of Mercy
Rahma, said he already had tenants lined
? up for the convenience store, garage, ware
house, barbershop and salon that will be
housed in the 18,000 square foot building.
There will also be a community center,
which Amer said is his way of giving back
to the community.
Lamaya Williams, and her husband Ira,
are consulting with Amer on the communi
ty center. She said though it's still early in
the planning stages, ideally it'll be a place
for kids to come after school with ameni
ties like a library and computer lab. She
said she spent much of her childhood at a
community center and hopes to be able to
give the same experience to youth today.
"It was really a way for kids to be in
one place, in a safe space, do homework or
whatever and have fiin with the neighbor
hood kids without any fear of outside
influence or doing anything bad and that's
the vision I have for this," said Lamaya
Williams, who has many year? of non
profit experience, including her current
position as director of operations at the
local Big Brothers, Big Sisters.
The building will be renovated with
$475,000 in
Revitalizing Urban Commercial Areas
(RUCA) grants from the city, which Amer
matched with his own funds for the
$950,000 renovation. Amer said he
expects to begin construction next week
and have it completed within four months.
Approval for rezoning was delayed
because local residents weren't aware of
what was going in the building. After
meeting with the North Winston
Neighborhood Association, the terms of
the loan were altered to include no sale of
alcohol on the property for 10 years and
that there will be no nightclub or
Sweepstakes parlor there.
The City Council also approved an
attempt to secure a $5 million federal
grant, which the city will match, for a $10
million multi-use bike and pedestrian path
that will run along Business 40, acting as a
connector around the downtown area. If
the City secures the money, the path would
be built during the Business 40 renova
tions. City Council Member Richard Clark
was the only dissenting vote. After the
meeting, he said he didn't feel like the path
was an efficient use of funds, since the
same money could build four miles of
sidewalk.
The city council approved-unanimous
ly that adult establishments can only be
open from 7 a.m.-2:30 a.m. in an attempt
to curb late night crime. Winston-Salem
Chamber President Gayle Anderson said
she heard no opposition to it from busi
nesses and Downtown Winston-Salem
Partnership President Jason Thiel said his
organization supported it.
"I know this is a city wide issue, but
we've had a microcosm of issues that have
been well reported in the press, I'll leave it
at that, after 2 a.m. in the downtown area,
so we strongly support this," said Thiel.
There's been several late night criminal
incidents that have grabbed headlines at a
downtown strip club. Lollipops, which the
city is currently trying to close with a nui
sance abatement suit. City Council
Member James Taylor said the ordinance
is not aimed at any one business, but is
aimed at issues around the city.
Previously there was no restriction on
the hours of such businesses. ABC permits
restrict businesses from serving alcohol
outside of the hours of 7 a.m.-2 a.m. and
gives until 2:30 am. for patrons to con
sume alcohol and for it be cleared from the
serving area.
The City Council also approved modi
fications to its 2007 incentive agreement
with Wake Forest University Health
Sciences to construct three new facilities in
the Innovation Quarter. The agreement for
the nearly $5 million in assistance stated
that the money would be paid back if there
wasn't 100,000 square feet of office, lab
and light industrial space built in ten years,
which the project hasn't done. The new
agreement gives the project an extra ten
years and now requires 150,000 square
feet to be constructed with requirements
for affordable/workforce housing.
Amer
Williams
Raises, 401K
contribution
in city budget
2016-17 preview
Budget would raise city's
minimum wage to $10.40
but could also raise taxes
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE 1_
A potential raise of up to 4 percent for
non-public safety, employees and a new
401k contribution could be in the upcom
ing City budget.
A preview of the
zuio-i / Duaget was
presented to a special
meeting of the City
Council on Monday,
April 4. The city is
' significantly behind
market pay in many
of its positions and,
other than sworn
police officers,
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contributions, a com
mon benefit offered by other municipali
ties. This has been having a negative effect
on the City's ability to recruit and retain
employees. The potential raises and a new
2 percent contribution to a 401k are an
attempt to start remedying that situation,
though ? it may also
result in a tax
increase.
However, the
proposed raises
would still leave
many positions great
ly below the pay in
other markets.
"That is actually
the problem, that we
have some categories Bene
that are just way
below market," said City Council Member
Dan Besse.
Besse suggested raising pay for such
positions in addition to across-the-board
pay raises. He asked staff to see how much
it would cost to bring such positions up to.
market pay.
Denice "DD." Adams acknowledged
that it may take many years to "close the
gap." She said the City might need to look
to new benefits to attract employees.
"Maybe not even in our lifetime here,
we may not see this remedied, but it is our
responsibility to at least come up with a
prevention and corrective action so it never
gets like this again," she said.
A balanced projected base budget of
$192 million dollars was presented by
Assistant City Manager Ben Rowe. It
includes nearly $2.4 million to cover the
action the City Council took in February to
raise minimum public safety worker pay
by 7.5 percent with a 2 percent annual sup
plement in an attempt to help with reten
tion in the fire and police departments. It
also covers the hiring
of several new posi
tions like five techni
cians for the consoli
dated City-County
Forensic Services and
operating expenses of
new facilities like dis
trict police offices.
The budget also
includes an increase
in the subsidy to the Adams
M.C. Benton
Convention Center, since part of it will be
closed and unable to generate revenue dur
ing renovations. There was also money for
renovations aqd repairs at parks and recre
ation centers, including amenities
improvements at Bolton Park, ceiling
repair at Sims Recreation Center, and
creek bank maintenance at Happy Hill
Park.
The base budget includes a merit raise
of approximately 2 percent, including ben
efits, for city employees, which costs $2.2
million. Despite increased revenues from
sources like property taxes and savings
from things like retirements, attrition and
lower fuel prices, that was the only raise
for those employees in the base budget.
? In the proposed budget enhancements
that is additional spending for which funds
will have to be found, there is an additional
2 percent market adjustment for non-pub
lic safety workers, which costs nearly $1.2
million, and the 2 percent contribution for
401k, effective January 2017, which Will
cost $558,000.
Budget enhancements also would raise
the minimum wage of city employees from
$10.10 to $10.40, which costs $39,000 and
provides for several new fire and police
positions. The budget enhancements-come,
to nearly $3.5 million, which Would be
approximately the equivalent of a 1.7 cent
property tax increase.
City Manager Lee Garrity said that he
may ask for a "modest" increase in taxes,
but won't know until May when the staff
has more refined budget projections.
A proposed budget is scheduled to be
brought before the council on May 26.
After several weeks of committee meet
ings, the budget will go before the council
for approval on June 20 and go into effect
July 1.
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