Ellen Cooper and Peter Korper Roll call

City council convened around 9 on Wednesday morning, September 17, at City Hall. All council members were present: Kirkman Finlay III, Tameika Isaac Devine, E.W. Cromartie, Mayor Bob Coble, Sam Davis, Daniel Rickenmann, and Belinda Gergel.

Monthly winner

The September 2008 Monthly Business Spotlight Program Honoree is Strictly Running, and it's being run by Mark Bedenbaugh, owner.

Community promotions

Judge Mi ldred McDuffie, chair, announced a funding award to Sexual Trauma for its anniversary gala: $1,800.

Fall fundraiser

The Essie Mae Washington- Williams Institute 2008 Fall Fundraiser was described by Wanda Terry, founder and director. The occasion is Saturday, October 4, from noon to 3 pm at the Brookland Banquet and Conference Center. The featured speaker is Susan L. Taylor, entrepreneur, author, and former editor- in- chief of Essence Magazine. Tickets are $55. Call 779.3949 or visit www.emwwifundraiser.com.

Music

Mor ihiko Nakahara, music director of the S.C. Philharmonic, was introduced by Rhonda Hunsinger, executive director. Nakahara invited the members of council to his first concert, Saturday night, September 20, and to the season's full schedule. Nakahara was chosen among dozens after months of competitive due diligence. One change to expect soon is more outreach to children. For tickets, call the S.C. Philharmonic, 254.7445.

Wanda Terry Downtown coalition

Council member Davis introduced Peter Korper of the Earlewood neighborhood and Ellen Cooper, past president of the Cottontown/ Bellevue Historic District. Korper and Cooper expressed unhappiness with the pending new homeless shelters and social services centers planned for the intersection of Elmwood Avenue and Main Street, one on each corner on the south side of Elmwood. On the southwest corner is the Midlands Housing Alliance, and on the southeast corner is the Christ Ministries. Korper and Cooper also represented Arsenal Hill, Elmwood Park, Robert Mills Historic District, Laurel Hill, and the Downtown Neighborhood Association. No one mentioned the exhaustive study and thoughtful recommendations offered by Dr. Morris Blachman's committee a few years ago. Then, council had pretty much agreed ahead of time to accept Blachman's qualified committee's conclusions as professed respect for the quality of the committee, but when the site was recommended, it was too close to council member Cromar tie's personal and protected turf. NIMBY, said Cromartie, and council crumbled.

Morihiko Nakahara Comprehensive plan

Jeff Crick, city planner, presented the outline of Columbia's ten- year plan, as required by the federal government and the state. Plan was approved and was made available on Columbia's Web site.

Heathwood

Sam Waters walked council through the process of the Heathwood neighborhood to adopt interim measures as a two- year holding action until decisions can be made on the matter of historic designation. Out of the 105 homes in the neighborhood's boundaries, 33 showed up at a meeting where 23 voted for the interim measures, a 70% vote among those present in favor. The turnout was more than 30%, which was also more than the typical turnout for a city council or mayor election, which Coble freely calls a mandate.

Waters, however, was told his neighborhood had to be held to a higher standard than other neighborhoods and even higher than the city itself. Council had heard from the neighborhood meeting no- shows and voted to ask Waters to organize another vote, this time with certified letters to all the 105 homes.

Waters had taken just about every possible approach to alert his fellow homeowners (to include surface mail, email, hand- delivered notices placed on every front- door threshold, and something less than a hundred city- supplied yard signs scattered along every street on both sides), but council asked for another vote, hoping for a higher turnout, just to be fair to their last- minute constituent callers.

Energy audit

John Bosch, vice president, and Larry Landry, senior account executive, both with Amerisco, presented council with the Amerisco energy audit's final report. With $16 million in potential projects to save real money on the city's energy, Amerisco recommends to council a pilot project to start made sense and held the city down in its exposure. So council agreed to go forward with a $2.1 million lighting improvement program, still performancebased in that Amerisco gets paid from shared energy savings. Amerisco recently gained an agreement with the Savannah River Site for $160 million. Amerisco has about $1 billion in business under way right now.

Cromartie asked for their net worth, past law suits, regulatory challenges, and other piercing questions peculiarly placed at such a time and place. Amerisco had already fielded questions of qualification in its pursuit of the city's business, which it competitively won months ago.

Next meeting

Council meets for a work session on September 24 at 9 am. Its next regular meeting is at 9 am on Oct. 1 on the third floor of City Hall at the corner of Laurel and Main.