Jim Kee

July 26, 2017

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Rumors about your support of re-opening the White Street Landfill?

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This week a citizen of District 2 asked me where I stand with reopening the White Street Landfill.  I have lived within 2 miles of the landfill for over 30 years, began building homes in Knottingham Forest subdivision which is where I live and the thought of it reopening is outrageous.  As a citizen of District 2, I fought alongside with my neighbors that were directly affected by the landfill and neighboring communities to get it closed as a citizen of District 2 and as your City Council Representative.

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Now, the truth of the matter is the talk of reopening of the White Street Landfill was started by the Greensboro City Council in 2009, one year before I was elected to city council.  I inherited this issue from Goldie Well's term as your Council Representative.  It was perhaps the most divisive issue to ever be debated in Greensboro.  This debate consumed a year and a half of my first 2 year term.

 

At the beginning of the process, Nancy Vaughan and Zack Matheny recused themselves from voting immediately because they had financial interest in the landfill being reopened. That left 7 members of council to vote on this issue.  4 members were in favor of reopening the landfill and 3 were not (Jim Kee, Robbie Perkins and Diane Belemany-Smalls).  This debate ended after a year and a half with lots of council meetings on this subject and numerous community meetings.

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Finally, the vote was 4 to 4 after Nancy Vaughan returned to vote on this issue.  Nancy returned to vote after the council eliminated Waste Industries, the company that Don Vaughan represented that applied to reopen the White Street Landfill.  Don was Nancy's husband at the time.  I requested that Nancy return and vote on this issue since she had no conflict of interest anymore.  She did return to vote no which left the council deadlocked.  This is how the White Street Landfill remained closed to household trash.

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Listed below are the News & Record news article links on the White Street Landfill. Please research the history and you will see that I supported the closing of the landfill (to household waste) and will fight to keep it closed.  You can also contact the City of Greensboro Public Records Administration.

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http://www.greensboro.com/news/political/city-to-seek-bids-to-open-landfill-site/article_a5ec4f88-b591-5807-a4eb-3df27560c27f.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

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http://www.greensboro.com/neighbors-frustration-mounts-northeast-city-residents-believeexpansion-of-the-facility/article_5ff77d19-edac-5a56-aacd-fda1146073bf.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

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http://www.greensboro.com/news/political/don-t-reopen-landfill-city-is-told/article_f22e42de-deee-5661-8354-8475ee7201f5.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

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What would you propose to help The Renaissance Shops Community Cooperative "Co-op" become strong and sustainable?

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The Co-op obviously needs more traffic/customers to be successful.  A reduction in monthly rent will also be of great assistance while the customer base increases.  A solution to this problem is to gain control of the entire shopping center.  Once this is done, the Co-op can become owners of the Renaissance Shops along with the community and set their own rental rates.  A rental rate program that is based on a percentage of gross sales allows the Co-op to grow and allows other small businesses to get started in the Renaissance Shops.  As businesses grow the rental rates increase and are capped at a certain rate.  This method increases businesses in the shopping center, increases traffic and simultaneously increases the tax base for the city and will help to stabilize the fees and tax rate for the citizens of Greensboro.

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What did Jim do in  District 2 while on the Greensboro  City  Council?

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As President/CEO for Kee Development Corporation, he created over 100 jobs building new homes in Knottingham Forest Subdivision located in District 2;

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• Led City Council to keep the White Street Landfill closed to household garbage;

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• Led City Council to allocate the first $685K toward the redevelopment of The Renaissance Shops located on Phillips Avenue;

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• Developed plan to complete the development of The Renaissance Shops;

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• Negotiated contracts between City of Greensboro and several minority businesses;

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• Created the first Economic Development study for NE Greensboro commissioned by the City Council;

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• Created the only internship program between NCA&TSU, Bennett College and the Greensboro City Council.

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What has Jim been doing since leaving the Greensboro City District 2 Council seat in 2013?

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Although Jim does not represent District 2 in an official capacity, he never stopped working for the citizens of Greensboro.

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During the summer of 2016, Jim worked with Sunoco to relocate its business to Greensboro that would have provided 1,000 jobs to our citizens. This process included working with Councilperson Sharon Hightower, County Commissioner Ray Trapp, Mayor Robbie Perkins and Gerry McCants.  The relocation did not happen in the eleventh hour due to the company loss of a major contract.

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As President/CEO of Kee Development Corp. he formed a non-profit organization called Concept Innovators CDC, Inc.  Concept Innovators CDC, Inc. is a 501 c3 nonprofit community development company that is committed to improving lives by way of providing safe, green affordable housing, healthy fruits and vegetables to the local area and educating the community on healthy life style changes.  The organization's focus is on low to moderate income families, veterans and senior citizens.  Concept Innovators CDC, Inc. was incorporated on December 12, 2013 and was awarded its 501 c3 nonprofit status on September 4, 2015.  He continues to search out ways to improve environmental issues as well as expanding the economic base in Greensboro.  On July 31, 2017 he traveled to the Department of Housing Urban Development in Washington DC to meet and discuss bringing new business into Northeast Greensboro.  Jim knows you have to get out and search for new business and not wait for it to come to you. Bringing new business will bring jobs and economic growth.

 

List below are a few additional community services  that Jim has been involved with:

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• 2013 Knottingham Forest Neighborhood was voted into membership of the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress (GNC);

 

• 2014 Appointed a Knottingham Forest resident to be on the Advisory Committee working alongside with Self-Help Organization of the old Bessemer Shopping Center into The Renaissance Shops project located at the corner of Phillips Avenue and Woodbriar;

 

• 2015 Led new landscaping of common area with planting of 10 trees in Knottingham Forest;

 

• 2016 Received $2,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Inc.  The purpose of the grant is to assist the Knottingham Forest homeowners with the preparation and building of a high tunnel for a community garden.  The clearing of land began in January 2017 and is actively underway.  The Association met on January 26, 2017 at the McGirt-Horton library to continue plans for the community garden.

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