Northport Community Engagement Dinner Welcomes Engaged Attendees
July 18, 2017
INTERIM CITY ADMINISTRATOR TALKS DEVELOPMENT, TRAFFIC, INTERNAL GROWTH
Interim Northport City Administrator Bruce Higginbotham, who also serves as the City's Engineer, was the guest speaker for the Summer Northport Community Engagement Dinner July 17, sponsored by The Levee.
Higginbotham spoke of exciting changes to the city, as well as challenges Northport faces. He said Northport's current Mayor and Council are committed to moving in the right direction. "They care about Northport and are eager to push the city forward," Higginbotham said. "We're at a critical point in the city's future."
Higginbotham mentioned the explosive residential development in Northport and said the city's current population, which sits at just above 25,000, is attractive to developers. "There are several residential developments right now that are being reviewed," he said. "These generate numbers developers want to see, such as traffic count, expendable income and population. Our numbers are attracting interest."
The city is working on plans to meet the needs of not only developers, but business owners in general, and is currently implementing plans for a "one-stop shop" for businesses. Higginbotham explained this step would give businesses a contact person who could help walk them through the entire process and give them peace of mind.
The city has also hired a Business Development Coordinator, Max Snyder, who has grant writing experience and is aggressively seeking money available to cities Northport's size, Higginbotham said.
Other topics of discussion included riverfront development, area traffic and planned future infrastructure projects.