Members of the Biloxi City Council will be asked this afternoon to formally accept the findings and recommendations of the Reviving the Renaissance initiative, a detailed report designed to help guide the city’s long-term recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
The council meeting begins at 1:30 at City Hall.
In crafting the report, more than 200 Biloxians examined an array of quality-of-life issues and pored over dozens of recommendations originally suggested by a world-renowned panel of urban planners and architects serving on the governor’s recovery commission. The RTR report includes a 154-page overall document and a section that specifically focuses on a post-Katrina east Biloxi.
The volunteers, who were invited to serve by Mayor A.J. Holloway and council members, examined such issues as affordable housing, land use, historic preservation, public education, recreation and transportation.
The east Biloxi component of the report represents the work of the national planning consortium Living Cities, which conducted numerous public hearings and meetings since February, when Holloway announced the Reviving the Renaissance initiative in his State of the City address.
Related info online
To read the resolution being delivered to council members this morning, click here.
To read the Reviving the Renaissance report online, click here.
To read highlights of the report, as mailed to all Biloxians in August, click here.
To read a Sun Herald editorial published today about the importance of the initiative, click here.
Public Works crews up for first-responder status
The Biloxi City Council, during its 1:30 meeting this afternoon, will consider a measure that would provide the city’s Public Works Department crews first-responder status, which has traditionally been afforded to personnel in the city’s Police and Fire departments.
The resolution — proposed by Councilmen George Lawrence, David Fayard, and Charles T. Harrison Jr. — recognizes Public Works personnel for their efforts in clearing roadways for emergency vehicles in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and may also help qualify Public Works staffers for any assistance provided specifically for first responders.
To read the resolution, click here. click here.
To read a WLOX story about the issue, click here.
Council agenda: 24 measures in all
The Reviving the Renaissance and first-responder issues are merely two of two dozen measures on the agenda for this afternoon’s City Council meeting.
Also on the 1:30 agenda: resolutions involving a parking agreement with the Isle of Capri Casino Resort, rebuilding of the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, road construction in the Caillavet Street revitalization project, repairs to storm-damaged traffic signals, and several resolutions involving the city’s ongoing debris-removal efforts.
To read the entire agenda and available resolutions, click here.
