Greenlaw Highlights Courts and Trees Needs

In an email to Patch, Councilor At-Large Mary Katherine Greenlaw commented on what she sees as Fredericksburg's pressing priorities over the next two years. Her comments come at a time when the City Council is intended to guide city policy. The full text is below:

"While all of the initiatives are important and contain key activities to  sustain and improve our city services and economic future, I would have to single out the need to determine the plan for the city courts and replanting trees as very high on my list.  The Renwick building was, in its day, a major event in the development of the city's downtown. The redevelopment/expansion of the courts will be a highlight of the present century in Fredericksburg's history.  It needs to be settled.  Protecting and increasing our tree canopy is dollar for dollar one of the best investments in our future that we can make"

Her comments reference two different initiatives under consideration by City Council for prioritization in the upcoming Goals and Initiatives planning document. Her comments on the courts reference initiatives 1B and 6E. Initiative 1B seeks to solicit a contractor under a public-private infrastructure initiative

Next week, the City Council will hold a working session with Judge Gordon Willis to discuss the issue of upgrading or replacing the courthouse. 

Greenlaw's support for the restoration of the downtown tree canopy is a reference to Initiative 4D, which calls for the restoration of Fredericksburg's "urban forest" by planting 600 trees per year. That initiative scored in the middle of the pack, stuck in a six-way tie for 13th place, solidly at the upper half of Tier 2 priorities for the council.

On the draft Goals and Initiatives, 4D is incorrectly marked as being in Tier 3. However, the initiative's ranking is correctly noted in the supplemental table which lays out the math behind the rankings.