The Washington City Council tended to routine business and updates on ongoing city projects in its regular March meeting Monday night, March 8, at the Pope Center.

Main Street Director David Jenkins reported that environmental testing would begin this week at the former NAPA Auto Parts site on East Robert Toombs Avenue. Crews would be digging test wells to locate any ground contamination. Once tested and cleared, the property owners will be able to sell or develop the property, he said.

At Jenkins’ request, the council passed a resolution to submit an application for a CDBG grant. Jenkins also reported that Wilkes County has just attained Work Ready status, and has qualified to get a $10,000 state grant to continue testing workers. He expressed appreciation to Councilman Marion Tutt Jr. and County Commissioner Ed Geddings for their work in attaining the certification.

Tutt expressed his appreciation to Geddings and all those involved in the Work Ready testing. “We are one of only 25 counties, out of 159 counties in Georgia, to get this designation,” he said. “We’re working on getting more testing dates to get more workers qualified, because if we want jobs to come here, education is the key.”

Urban Redevelopment Authority Chairman Charles Jackson gave Mayor Willie Burns and the council an update on the URA’s two current projects. Acquisition of the old Anderson service station property on Whitehall Street is proceeding, and clean up will start as soon as all heirs to the owners’ estate are located.

The URA has met with two groups hoping to build a hotel at the Pope Center. Al Hill from Gourmet Hospitality Services and Don French from the Somata Group both made presentations to the Authority in the last week, he said, but members were not yet satisfied with all the information presented and were meeting again on Wednesday, March 10. The authority should be able to make a decision on the hotel project by its March 18 meeting and make a recommendation to the council at the next regular council meeting.

Councilman Pamela Eaton reported that the Downtown Development Authority will meet Thursday, March 18, at 8:30 a.m. at Farmers State Bank.

The council approved a request by Wilkes Ministers United to use The Square on May 6 for a National Day of Prayer observance.

City Administrator Mike Eskew reported that the city instituted levelized utility billing in February and would like to increase the number of households using the service in March, and expects to open it up to all utility customers in April.

The council’s electric committee recommended reducing the late penalty from 10 percent to 5 percent for senior citizens, using Federal criteria to define who is a senior citizen. The committee had also discussed a 10 percent reduction in utility bills for those paying early, he said, but the billing company’s software was not capable of making that change at this time.

Mayor Burns said that the 2010 Census starts April 1, and urged everyone to fill out their forms and send them in. “That’s how we qualify for federal and state funds,” he said. He also urged any citizen who is nearing foreclosure to attend a seminar at The Pope Center on March 20, where there would be advice and lenders to talk with homeowners.

The meeting ended with an executive session for personnel in which no action was taken. The next city council meeting will be held Monday, April 12, at the Pope Center.