With the City of Danville hoping to bring new industry to the old Quaker Oats and Heatcraft sites on East Voorhess, a chance has come along to go for a $5 million state grant to help with flood remediation work. After Tuesday night approval by the City Council, Community Development Administrator Logan Cronk stated that that state grant would be available faster than the federal grant they were considering. And since they, in Cronk’s words, “want this done yesterday,” this was a great chance to actually get the ball rolling this year.
AUDIO: We have a recent vacancy and a large job loss at that location. And we believe it’ll score high in the grant application. (So at better chance to get it done in the calendar year 2026?) Yes, at least start designing. This grant will pay for both design and construction. So we can get the whole project hypothetically paid for in one shot.
The state grant comes with a required 20% / $1 million match.
Meanwhile, following some “closed session” discussion, significant “open session” discussion took place at the end of the Council meeting about elected official salary adjustments for those elected in the Spring of 2027 Consolidated Elections. Much talk involved the mayor’s salary, with Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr saying that after its incremental rise from $75,000 in 2023 to $110,000 going into the 2027 election, it should then increase to $130,000 to help Danville get strong mayoral candidates in the future. Alderman Doug Ahrens stated he might be able to agree with that, IF there were a definite way to hold mayors accountable and remove them from office mid-term if needed.
There was also significant talk about making the City of Danville Treasurer an appointed rather than elected position, with the hint that maybe that could be placed on the Spring of 2027 ballot.
Much of the salary discussion was dominated by Mayor Williams and Alderwoman Tricia Teague.
