Welcome to a new week. This morning, about half of our public safety dispatch team moved into the new dispatch center. Our 911 calls are being handled by some of our dispatch professionals working in the Orem dispatch center while other dispatch work is now being done in the new building. It is exciting to see the process beginning as we get closer and closer to a formal opening of the new city hall.
UPCOMING CITY EVENTS
Steel Magnolias I May 5 - May 28
Jive Spring Concert Vineyard/Springville I May 16 - May 18
The Dance Conservatory presents: King Bidgoods I May 20 - May 21
Utah COPA POP Concert I May 23 7:30 pm
Studio K Dance Recital I May 24 7:00 pm
Studio 1 Solo Showcase I May 26 4:00 pm
Studio 1 Spring Recital I May 26 7:00 pm
Bike-In Movie: Napoleon Dynamite I May 27 8:00 pm
Covey Center Summer Dance Classes I May 31 10:00 am
Provo Pioneer Village I June 6 5:00 pm
Dee Dee Darby Duffin Excellence Concert I June 6 7:30 pm
Movies in the Park: Shrek 2 I June 6 8:00 pm
No Pressure Book Group I June 7 7:00 pm
Lakeview Park Beautification Service Project I June 9 6:00 pm
Jive Spring Concert: Riverton I June 10 - June 11
Aqua Fitness Party I June 11 10:00 am
Provo Touch-A-Truck I June 11 11:00 am
Movies in the Park: Sing 2 I June 13 8:00 pm
Wasatch Ballet Presents "Princess" I June 17 - June 18
Movies in the Park: Hercules I June 20 8:00 pm
Provo Market I July 23 10:00 am
Shops at Riverwoods Summer Beach Party I June 24 4:00 pm
The Tom Proctor Band I June 24 7:30 pm
Movies in the Park: Spider-Man No Way Home I June 24 8:00 pm
Ammon and Liahona I June 25 6:00 pm
Motown & More I July 1 7:30 pm
YOUR VOICE
Have any exciting news? Birthdays, babies, weddings, fur-babies, graduations? Share about it in the section on the right --> and upload pics below!
NEWS YOU CAN USE
- Abbott Nutrition restarted production of some types of baby formula at its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, over the weekend, a step many hope will help ease a nationwide shortage. The company said it would begin with EleCare, a product meant for infants with digestive issues.
- Apple kicked off its annual developer conference. Expected announcements include iOS 16, new MacBooks, and plans for VR-supported FaceTime.
- At least 24 cases of monkeypox across 11 states have been identified, US health officials said over the weekend, with more than 400 potential contacts under investigation. Two strains are said to be circulating in the country. Officials say the risk to public health remains low, and a widespread epidemic is unlikely.
- A crew of three Chinese astronauts arrived at the country's nearly complete Tiangong space station yesterday. As the third crewed mission to arrive at the station's core module, the trio will spend six months in space and oversee the arrival and assembly of the station's final two modules. The orbital facility is regarded as China's answer to the International Space Station, of which China is not a member.
PROVO SOCIAL MEDIA
HOT-BUTTON ITEMS IN PROVO
Let’s talk about city hall parking. It has been a question since we began the new city hall and public safety building project, and I know it has been a challenge to not have enough parking during construction.
When we envisioned the city hall/PSB project, we knew that parking was going to be an issue, but we also knew that a potential redevelopment of the existing city hall property would have an impact on parking. Obviously, the more intense the redevelopment, the more intense the parking would need to be. As we began thinking about, and eventually trying to find a master developer, it made sense for the City and the master developer to combine efforts to build sufficient parking for both projects. After all, the City’s uses for parking are mostly during the day (and evening when the Covey Center is most active), and other uses like additional entertainment, dining and shopping would be focused on evenings and weekends. So, the same spaces could be used for different purposes depending on the timing.
So, our request for proposals for master developers included provisions that the redevelopment project would provide for the demolition of the existing buildings and for the parking for both city uses and development uses, and that any subsidy from the City like land value or tax increment would help meet the need for demolition and parking. When we selected our master developer (McWhinney), we both began the process of due diligence to decide how best to redevelop the site while still meeting the parking needs for the new city hall. Unfortunately, the combination of market forces, costs and the timing challenges of development took more time than either party expected, and we determined that the needed subsidy for the development vision was way more expensive than just coming up with demolition and parking costs on the City’s dime.
So, we are kind of back to square one on both parking and demolition. Removal of asbestos in the current city center will be quite expensive and extensive, taking the better part of a year to accomplish. And, we also need to build a a replacement for the downtown fire station to meet the needs of our growing downtown.
The upshot of all this is that we are working diligently to identify the best solution for parking, demolition and the fire station replacement and how to time all of those things in a way that will have the best long term benefit and still meet our parking needs. We are exploring both structured parking and surface parking options and funding alternatives. It is a daily discussion and things are in the works. In the short run, once construction workers and staging areas are gone, we can park most of our city employees on site in the remaining parking, and we can still use the Nu Skin lot at 100 S and 200 W for overflow parking needs. Once a master plan has been identified to address these needs, we will let you know what it is and what the timing will be. And we will be pursuing a new redevelopment plan for the current city center block which will be able to handle parking better and more cost effectively.
So, please try to be patient while we work on the best “Plan B” for parking at city hall. We were disappointed that the original plan didn’t pan out due to changing market conditions, but we will have a really good solution coming forward soon.
FUN STUFF
So, this weekend we have watched the British Jubilee celebrating 70 years since Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne. While Her Majesty has been largely sidelined with illness, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have been quite active in the festivities. Watch 4 year old Prince Louis be very active during an event, and watch his parents and grandparents display their parenting skills for all the world to see in this little video clip. I’m glad I didn’t have cameras focused on me when I tried to manage my preschool kids’ behavior at parades!
I hope you have an awesome day. You deserve it!
Wayne
PROVO SOCIAL MEDIA