Items from the City Manager’s report: New agreement with CAPSCA in works 

Part of the mission of Town Crier Productions is to report as much as I can about what’s happening in municipal government. I can’t write full stories on everything so stories like this one are ways for me to get out what I can.

On Monday, City Manager Sam Sanders opted to forgo an aural version of his report to City Council. Here are some notable items from the written report:

• Both Albemarle and Charlottesville staff have been negotiating with Libby Jones, the new executive director of the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA, about “funding and future operations of our animal shelter.” Both localities pay the SPCA funding every year to operate the facility. 
• Council may set up an internal finance committee, a common practice of many elected bodies in the Commonwealth of Virginia. 
• The city’s website will relaunch on April 17 with a refreshed look. Hopefully data won’t be deleted this time. 
• Dominion Energy will begin converting some of the city’s streetlights to LED with the first set expected to be upgraded on the Route 250 Bypass from Emmet Street to River Road. 
• The city has recently reprogrammed Community Development Block Grant funds in two cases from public infrastructure to private infrastructure projects for both the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank for refrigeration equipment and the New Hill Development Corporation for their BEACON commercial kitchen. However, $171,655.34 in CDBG funds are being used to build a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Pollocks Branch in Jordan Park. 
• The Office of Community Solutions is crafting a process for the city to acquire land. This is perhaps relevant in a period when Council recently paid $4 million for a property on Avon Street as well as $5.9 million for land on the Rivanna River. The “standard operating procedure” should be ready by June and one question is whether this would apply to any future land bank the city may be considering. 

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