City Council To Hold Emergency Meeting

City Council will meet Tuesday night to discuss the sale of the municipal garage during an emergency meeting, Mayor Dawn Zimmer announced Monday afternoon. 

The city is still getting ready for the Aug. 13 closing date to sell the garage to development firm SHG Hekemian Group for $25.5 million. 

City Council will also enter a closed session on Tuesday night, to be briefed by the city's environmental and legal professionals. The city has started moving out of the current garage on Observer Highway, and will have to have vacated that location before the 13th. Before then, the city also needs to receive a "no further action" letter from the Department of Environmental Protection. The city has not received the letter from the DEP yet. Last week, city officials maintained that everything was on track, but did not provide an exact timeline. 

After tomorrow's closed session, "a vote on a resolution to provide direction to the City's redevelopment counsel, will occur in public session," according to a press release sent out by the city. 

The budget for the transitional year, which was supposed to be introduced during Wednesday night's meeting, will be proposed in September instead, Zimmer also announced. This is because potential litigation with Hekemian will bring costs, which will have to be included in the budget.  

"I want to provide the Council with the best starting point possible, and therefore my Administration needs additional time to fully assess the potential impact of significant issues related to the budget," said Zimmer in a statement. 

As of Monday night it was still unclear what resolutions are on the meeting's agenda and what exactly will be discussed. 

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in City Hall. The regular city council meeting will be held on Wednesday at 7 p.m.