News story here.
Danville Community Development Administrator Logan Cronk says it was a couple years back that the city made a commitment to take the area around the Carle at the Riverfront project and beautify it. And much of that involves purchasing blighted structures north of Carle at the Riverfront, and then tearing them down to create open space. Two of those purchases were approved by the Danville City Council Tuesday (July 16th) evening. Cronk says this involves the building to the north as you look from Leon’s Diner, and then another one further north.
AUDIO: It’s just to the north of Leon’s, and there’s another building that’s a couple of buildings to the north of that, that’s also collapsing on itself. I believe it used to be an old bait shop. A part of this purchase comes along 10 acres along the riverfront. We really conceptualize that plan that Carle started. From the south there’s a shared path through the Carle campus; and then extend that out and go all the way up north.
(1st Picture) Danville Community Development Administrator Logan Cronk (2nd from left) talks about real estate purchases around Carle at the Riverfront. (3rd Picture) Balloons Over Vermilion Event Co-Chair Carly Goodwin addresses the City Council about BOV 2024.
Cronk says one difficulty on tearing down these blighted structures will be removing some empty fuel tanks, most likely used for heating purposes, below the building just to the north of Leon’s. Cronk says between necessary inspections, and then actual removal of the tanks; the tearing down process could still be about a year away.
In other City Council action during Tuesday’s meeting, passage of the Danville Compensation Administrative Guide, creating a new structure for salaries of city employees, was tabled until the August 20th Council meeting. The main issue of concern expressed was if an exception to what’s in the guide is desired, would it be subject to full Council approval? The Compensation Administrative Guide will now go before committees for further discussion before the August 20th Council meeting.
Meanwhile, Balloons Over Vermilion Event Co-Chair Carly Goodwin thanked the City Council for their support of this past weekend’s event. She says they’ll be thinking about 2025 soon.
AUDIO: It’ll be a little bit before we have any official numbers or anything. But we know that there were thousands and thousands of smiles, and it was great to see the balloons in the air this year. We’re already looking forward to next year, what we may be able to do differently; but we’ll keep a lot of things the same just because it was a great weekend in our community.
At the start of Tuesday’s Danville City Council meeting; Jason Baer was appointed to the David S. Palmer Arena Board, for a term expiring in November of 2025; and Janet Alexander was appointed to the Danville Public Library Board, for a term expiring in November of 2026.
