Tweeting Greensboro City Council meeting live

Duke Energy spokesman Davis Montgomery (left) and Deputy City Manager
Jim Westmoreland at a tree ordinance subcommittee meeting. 

Tonight I'll be tweeting live from the Greensboro City Council meeting. Follow along for short updates at @yesweekly.  At this point, council is already through its consent agenda and is on the first public hearing agenda item.

Council will be voting on the city budget tonight, as well as the tree ordinance aimed at adjusting Duke Energy's tree-trimming practices for power line maintenance in the city.

Just a moment ago, council approved a public hearing to revisit the noise ordinance on July 16, with Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter voting no because many young professionals and students who care about the issue are out of town during the summer.

Full coverage of the tree ordinance decision and the city budget will appear in the June 26 issue of YES! Weekly.

UPDATE: Council didn't finish meeting last night and hasn't addressed the budget yet. It will resume at 2 p.m. today (Wednesday) and yours truly will be there with Twitter updates again.

City staff pulls "Save Our Trees" signs, tries to return them

Recent "tone deaf" actions of city staff are fueling a conspiracy theory that the city of Greensboro is in cahoots with Duke Energy, Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan said today. Staff, in an effort to enforce sign regulations citywide, recently pulled up "Save Our Trees" signs in a few neighborhoods just outside of downtown, causing an uproar from opponents of Duke Energy's heavy-handed tree trimming line maintenance practices.

"Evidently city staff, over the last few weeks, have been doing a clean sweep of signs that are in medians, ecetera," Vaughan said. "All hell is breaking loose. It’s just another irritation that didn’t need to happen."

Vaughan said staff members are now trying to find signs and return them to their respective neighborhoods. 

Council will vote on the proposed tree ordinance at its June 18 meeting. Read more about the battle over trees in this week's issue of YES! Weekly.