The Nitro City Council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance at its Tuesday night meeting establishing a building commission to handle the purchases of city buildings, said Mayor Dave Casebolt.
Casebolt said the City Council needs a building commission to execute the purchase of a new building for the city's police department. In November, Council approved the purchase of the Peoplework Solutions building to house its police department.
Council will read the ordinance for a second time at its next meeting in January.
Council also accepted a resolution from the Nitro Development Authority concerning high speed internet access in the city.
Casebolt said that council accepted the resolution and that the city will continue to look into the possibility of installing fiber-optic cables throughout the city to bring gigabit internet speeds to the city.
The development authority previously heard a presentation from Charlie Dennie, director of special projects for Alpha Technologies. Dennie's company already was planning to install fiber-optic cables near Nitro, and a member of the development authority asked Dennie if the city could be included on the project.
If the city would follow Dennie's plan, it would use federal and state grant money to build more than 5 miles of fiber-optic cable throughout the city, which, depending on how much cable the city used, could cost upward of $1 million.