The Danville City Council Public Services Committee did some preparation work connected to the soon-to-be opened Golden Nugget Casino during Tuesday’s (Feb 28th) meeting. In one direct connection, the city liquor code was adjusted to be able to serve alcohol in the new casino. As Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr explains, the city has never had a casino before, and therefore never had a bar in a casino before. So in order to allow Golden Nugget to serve liquor in their planned steakhouse and sports bar, it was just a simple adjustment.
AUDIO: We didn’t have a license that was specifically for casinos, Steve. So we implemented a license to allow the serving of alcohol on the casino property.
In another connection to the casino’s opening; the Golden Nugget will certainly, if all goes well, require more public service personnel to be on duty, and that includes fire fighters. To help lessen the need for overtime between now and the next city contract with union firefighters, the city is, subject to full Council approval, applying for the federal government SAFER Grant, which stands for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response. Mayor Williams says, if approved, this will allow the city to hire six more firefighters, adding two additional firefighters per shift for the next three years.
Danville Fire Chief Aaron Marcott (second from right) listens in during Public Services Committee meeting.
AUDIO: This is a stop gap. If we have additional people working each shift, then we greatly reduce the chance that we’ll need overtime because of individuals being off either through vacation, sick time, or injury; which we anticipate would save us between one-and-a-half, upwards of $2,000,000.
The mayor, and Fire Chief Aaron Marcott, both stated that going into the next contract, they’ll be able to evaluate whether or not that level of services is still needed.
AUDIO: By then we’ll have been through the majority of our retirements, we think. We’ll be probably in negotiations or will have completed the current negotiations, so then the city will have a better idea of what they need to do, going forward or backward. Plus, whatever happens economically in the city over the next few years.
The city should know by early summer if they’ll receive the grant.
Also during Tuesday’s Public Services Committee meeting, the motion was approved to give $80,000 in ARPA COVID relief money to the David S Palmer Arena, and $20,000 to the Danville Area Visitors Bureau.
