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Covington economic-development team plans April open house to address business crime concerns
Summary
City economic-development staff said businesses have reported crime as an ongoing problem and announced an April 2 open house to review crime statistics, encourage reporting, explain B&O tax uses and teach CPTED principles; a $500 credit drawing was offered by a local business.
Covington economic-development staff told the City Council on Jan. 28 that local businesses are reporting that crime is affecting operations and customer confidence, and the city will hold an open house on April 2 to gather input and coordinate next steps.
Josh, speaking for the economic-development group, said the open house is intended to "generate discussion around what some of the themes are around that," and to help establish consensus on the city’s biggest "pain points" for businesses.
The meeting will cover local crime statistics, the importance of reporting incidents to law enforcement, how the city’s business-and-occupation (B&O) tax revenues are utilized, and principles of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design), Josh said. He also said Justin Van Landschew "has offered kind of a gift, or a credit to business, some drawing, business can get, or can win. He'll donate $500 towards their, maybe making some changes with their business, to make it more, less vulnerable, if you will through CPTED principles."
Councilmembers asked for the open-house time; staff confirmed a 5:30 p.m. start.
City officials characterized the session as outreach to learn where businesses feel vulnerable and to encourage organized incident reporting that would allow patrol and enforcement resources to be targeted more effectively. No formal policy changes or new funding allocations were proposed at the Jan. 28 meeting.
The economic-development representative said the outreach is part of a continuing B-to-B (business-to-business) initiative that includes talking directly with businesses and supporting education about business taxes and safety practices.
