The Memphis City Council got a lot done at Tuesday’s meeting, especially given it was to be the second-to-last meeting for many of the council members.
Here’s a few things your local government did for you last night:
• Smart meters – The council approved the full deployment of the five-year, $240 million project to install smart meters on nearly every home in the MLGW service area. Read our previous smart meter stories here and here and (hilariously) here.
• Water rate hike, electric rate decrease – Council members made clear over the last month that they did not like the water rate hike increase that would have added $3.31 to the average, annual MLGW bill. A proposal was raised in a special meeting Monday to lower electric and gas rates and keep water rates stable to keep MLGW the same as the proviso year.
That proposal caught and Tuesday night council members approved a measure to balance the scale by lowering electric rates and raising water rates by nearly equal amounts.
Read our previous stories here and here,
• Central Station – Work can begin on the massive $55 million project to transform the train station campus at the corner of G.E. Patterson and Main into apartments, a hotel with a restaurant, a movie theater, and more. Council members approved $600,000 in city spending on the project, which developers said they needed to secure investors and to kickoff construction.
Read our previous stories about Central Station here and here and here and here and here.
• Idlewild gate – Also, no gate will be erected to cap off Idlewild at Union. Instead, other traffic-calming measures will be used to protect Idlewild from the traffic created by a new development at Union and McLean and the new Kroger store, which is slated to open next year.
Read our story here.
• Liberty Bowl – On December 15, the council will take up a measure to spend $4.8 million on the Liberty Bowl stadium for premium seating. That money will be paid back by the University of Memphis. Read our story here.
