GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) – The Greenville City Council met Monday for the first time in 2024 and it was all about reviewing some important items on the agenda.
The agenda consists of awarding construction contracts, readings, and an important issue about cryptocurrency farms and mining in Greenville and Pitt counties. There was discussion to amend an ordinance allowing cryptocurrency mining in the city. The council wanted to make sure the decision it made Monday was in the best interest of the people of Greenville.
The City Council awarded construction contracts for the Greenville Gateway sign and also talked about the second phase of bringing a sports complex facility to the city.
“We have great facilities here, but we didn’t have enough of them last year,” said Andrew Schmidt, president and CEO of Visit Greenville, N.C. “We booked 49 tournaments in Greenville in Pitt County, which represents about $13 million in economic impact, but we turned down a lot of tournaments, and we didn’t even pursue a lot of tournaments that we knew we couldn’t hold. Just because we didn’t have those types of tournaments. Accompanying.
The big item that saw back-and-forth discussion from the council was Ordinance No. 22-0-14. This law sets guidelines for cryptocurrency farms and data processing in Greenville, and is requested in 2022.
“So what we’re doing is we’re taking another look at this ordinance,” Commissioner Marion Blackburn said. “We would say: Do we want it at all, do we want to modify it, do we want to keep it as it is? What does the community want and what do we want? I wanted to look at this for our community and take crypto mining out of here.
“If it brings in millions and millions of dollars as I think this company has promised, it will be very attractive,” Greenville resident Bob Hudak said during the meeting. “What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul in the process? What does it profit our city of Greenville to gain a lot of money through a new business initiative and lose the spirit we have because we have a great city?”
Public comment from the community prompted an amendment to this law to keep cryptocurrency mining out of Greenville.
“This is a very complex issue, it’s a simple issue, I think, and I’ve been very clear and our community has been very clear that what we don’t want is cryptocurrency mining with the hype and the environmental damage and the negative impacts on society that comes with it,” Blackburn said.
The final resolution was a motion for staff to compile a report that would educate Council members and the public to consider a textual amendment to amend this ordinance. The city council wants to find a way to remove cryptocurrency farming and the negative impacts it has on the community such as noise and electricity use without removing the entire law that sets guidelines for data processing of all kinds in the community.
Approval agenda (from Greenville)
- Clause 1: Sublease agreement with the State of North Carolina for equipment at the VIPER Tower located at 2805 East Second Street (unanimously approved)
- Clause 2: Resolution to accept the allotment of rights-of-way and easements for the South Arbor Hills Community Subdivision, Section 2, Phases 10 and 11 (approved unanimously)
- Clause 3: Decision and Release Deed to Relinquish a 10′ Wide Electrical Facility via Tax Parcel No. 73527 (Approved Unanimously)
- Clause 4: An ordinance approving the Greenville Utilities Commission’s capital project budget for the Whitehurst Station water main extension project (approved unanimously)
- Clause 5: Ordinance amendment and reimbursement resolution for the Greenville Utilities Commission’s capital project budget for the wastewater treatment plant purification project (approved unanimously)
- Clause 6: Resolution declaring police dog Sonny surplus and authorizing its disposition to Officer Nathan Lather (passed unanimously)
- Clause 7: Amendment No. 2 to the existing on-call engineering services agreement with Al Sharq Group (approved unanimously)
- Clause 8: Awarding the contract to develop the urban transportation plan 2050 (unanimously approved)
- Clause 9: Application for Public Art on Public Property – Downeast Sculpture Gallery (unanimously approved)
New business
- Clause 10: Awarded contract for construction of new Grenfell Gate sign (unanimously approved)
- Clause 11: Award of the 2024 Rehabilitation and Preservation Project contract and approval of Task Order No. 5 for the on-call Construction Engineering, Inspection (CEI) and Construction Materials Testing (CMT) contract (unanimously approved)
- Clause 12: Awarding the investment advisory services contract (unanimously approved)
- Clause 13: Budget Ordinance No. 6 amends the Capital Project Funds (Order No. 17-024), the Voluntary Fund (Order No. 18-062), and the Special Revenue Grant Fund (Order No. 11-003) (approved unanimously)
- Clause 14: Discussion of Order No. 22-014 (Normal Data Processing) (Directing staff to prepare a report on possible amendment to the law)
*Supporting documents and additional information related to the agenda items mentioned above can be found here.