Council Legislative Committee to Consider Clean Energy Jobs Bill; DAB Next Budget

Council's Legislative Committee meets on Friday the 16th, and they'll be talking about the Clean Energy Jobs bills! They passed out of committee yesterday, and it looks like there's some momentum behind them. It would be great for the City formally to add their support to that. (Mayor Bennett, Councilors Andersen, McCoid, and Nanke sit on the committee.)

Strong endorsement this year by the paper

They also look to be talking about using photo radar for speed enforcement and about changing the way Cherriots' Board is selected.

Agenda and short packet

The Downtown Advisory Board meets today, Thursday the 15th, and they'll be talking about the 2018-2019 Urban Renewal budget.

Agenda and Meeting Packet

It looks to bump up spending from this year by quite a bit. There are also a number of line items that are new here. Maybe you have seen news about them elsewhere or know what they are.

• Riverfront Commercial Facility - $75,000
• North Block Study - $150,000
• Sobering Center - $500,000
• SCC Expansion Design - $300,000
• North Block Structure - $250,000

Other things are not new - and remain interesting:

• Streetscape and Alley Improvements
• State Street Two-way Conversion
• Additional Funds on the PC [Minto] Bridge
• Union Street Bike Friendly Phase II
• Street Improvements (adjacent to Police Facility)
• High Street Broadband

As more details come out, there may be more to say on some of them. Presumably they will be fleshed out with full Staff Reports as they are formally adopted by City Council or the Urban Renewal Agency. As bare line items here, things are a bit thin. There's already been some $750k grants for the nursing home and the new office building on the "north block" of the Boise parcel. So what's this new $250k item, and a $150k study? Some of these look like they merit more discussion in public. (CANDO has some notes on the sobering center here and here in the context of wider mid-valley efforts and sometimes lack of coordination or effectiveness. They have followed that much more closely - and with some concern, it should be noted.)