Roanoke grant money to go toward City Hall

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The Roanoke City Council Monday agreed to re-route $300,000 of grant money into needed renovations at City Hall.

The city was awarded the grant in 2022 as part of the CARES Act, the federal government relief legislation that came as result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The money is earmarked to create a testing facility for the city should another pandemic arise.

The city originally planned to build that testing facility at the city’s nutrition center, adjacent to the recreation center. But the plans submitted for that facility were not cost effective and were scrapped.

With Monday’s action, which was approved by a 3-2 vote of the council with Tammi Holley and John Frank Houston voting no, that $300,000 will go toward creating testing facilities at City Hall and will also allow the city to upgrade the restrooms in that building as well.

Nuisance properties
The council unanimously approved assessing costs to three separate property owners for the abatement of their nuisance properties in town.
Two properties on the corner West Point and Chestnut Streets downtown and one property on Radney Street were torn down at a total cost of $15,660 to the city. By law the city has the right to pass those costs on to the property owners, who have 30 days to pay or else they will see those charges on their poperty tax bills.

Electrical work at PD
The council agreed, again by a 3-2 vote with Holley and Houston voting no, to approve a bid for electrical work at the new police headquarters on Main Street. Integrated Contractor Services’s bid of $27,230 was the one that was approved.

Black history
Roanoke resident Wilkie Frieson spoke during the public comments portion of Monday’s council meeting and read a portion of a prepared statement recounting the history of Roanoke since 1964 when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.

Frieson spoke of the racial tension that existed here in the midst of the civil rights movement and talked about how the schools were not integrated here until nearly 10 years after the Civil Rights Bill was passed.

He recounted the final graduating class of the Randolph County Training School in 1972 and the construction of the recreation center and the nutrition center in 1973, which was also the first year that an integrated class of students graduated from Handley High School.

He recalled how Black teachers from the training school were not hired at Handley and had to find other work.

He was not able to read his entire statement, as public comments are limited to three minutes per person in the council meeting. But he was told he could continue at the next council meeting.