Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr says things that have happened since he became mayor in November of 2018 are due to a solid team effort. Speaking with Linda Bolton on 1490 WDAN’s News Makers program, Williams talked about city reserves growing from $300,000 to well over the required $1.2 million, the fire and police pensions being better funded, and maybe some good news soon to come on a possible early pay-off of bond debt. And again, Williams emphasizes, everyone helped.
AUDIO: I have a city council that takes stewardship seriously. I could not do what I’ve done, we could not do what we’ve done, without their partnership. We have department heads that take it seriously. They evaluate every project; and say “Is this a need, or if it’s not a need is this grant money that can only be used for certain things?”
Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr expects the old Bresee Tower, along with the adjacent County Courthouse Annex building, to be torn down late in 2022 or early in 2023.
The mayor also emphasized that with the population loss Danville has seen over the last few decades, there are still too many housing structures for the current population, and that means a lot of deteriorating ones that need to come down. Williams says he’s proud that 100 old structures came down last year, because after all, it’s good for the city, and it’s people.
AUDIO: Number one, the neighbors feel better; because they don’t have to see that dilapidation and that rot. Number two, it’s safer for them from both a public safety perspective but as well as a health perspective. Some of these houses, they get filled with water and they start smelling, and then the neighbors can’t open their windows. But the other big thing is sometimes people go in there and do bad things. So then you have, especially sometimes elderly folks, who feel trapped in their own home.
Mayor Williams says he continues to make Downtown Danville a high priority simply because Downtown is for everyone. And he says, there should be some more good news soon.
AUDIO: Recently I had a meeting with one of our commercial realtors. That individual told me that, “Rickey, you know a couple of years ago we were only about 30 or 40 percent occupancy. Now we are at about 80 percent occupancy.” The other big thing, which I can’t say a whole lot right now, is that it’s my understanding that the Turk building was just aquired. And let’s just say people will be very excited to see what will be going in.
Also in the future, Mayor Williams says live in-person City Council meetings should be resuming at the start of March, as will additional work on how to spend the city’s COVID relief money. As for Bresee Tower, the mayor sees it coming down late this year or early next year, and that the old county courthouse annex next to it will be coming down as well, as he continues to work with County Board Chairman Larry Baughn on an inter-governmental agreement.
