6/29 Workshop

• Tonight's City Council Meeting was short compared to others, however we only had 4 items on the agenda. We discussed the proposed Convention Center and re-approved the Downtown location, we also approved to have the feasibility study updated and to go out for RFP's on a possible partnership with a hotel for the Convention Center.


• The Municipal Golf Course project is moving forward. Developers and City staff have 60 days to finalize the contract. I know there are many golfers looking forward to this development.


• Downtown parking will be free for the first hour at 3 city parking lots until Sept. 30Th. We hope this will ease some of the complaints from downtown shoppers. The main complaint is always parking. Truth is - there is plenty of parking, shoppers just haven't had any incentive to use the parking lots available and they keep wishing they had more store front parking spaces.


• Also at tonight's meeting we discussed the Solid Waste Dept. Changes are going to have to be made to reduce costs and increase revenue. FYI-Comparing Laredo to other Texas cities, we offer the best services for far less cost to the customer. With fees the way they are right now, the city loses money with this department. So something has to be done. I have suggested for staff to look into purchasing Solar Powered Big Belly Trash Compactors for downtown. This will reduce the times the trash collectors have to collect in the d.t.area. I also asked that if fees do need to be increased that we look into excluding the over 65 population from the increase. Other suggestions were made and I know we will find a way to make this work without having to inconvenience the customer too much. I will keep you posted on this issue.