What the Majority of the $8.66M is Going To

$6M of the $8.66M in debt issued in the last City Council meeting is going to N. 3rd St.  (See pg. 4 here.  You'll see $5M from the 2006 bond and $1M from the 2/3rds bond going to 3rd St.)

What is the N. 3rd St. project?

StarNews:

City transportation officials are finalizing the design for the North Third Street corridor enhancement project that runs from Market Street to the Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.  (This is a grand total of about 10 blocks.) The approximately $7.2 million project includes decorative lighting, upgrades to six traffic signals and improvements to make the street safer for pedestrians, Senior Transportation Planner Mike Kozlosky said.

[...]The project also includes adding "bulb outs" or extensions to the sidewalks that will shorten the amount of street pedestrians have to cross. Pedestrian signals will also be added where they are lacking, as it the case at the intersections of Third and Grace and Third and Brunswick. (Meaning right by the MLK parkway.)

[...]The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority has also secured around $2 million to replace aging sewer and water pipes below the street.

Kozlosky said officials are also working out an agreement with Progress Energy and AT&T to burry utilities.

Funding for the project comes from a 2006 transportation bond referendum where voters approved $5 million for the enhancement of North Third Street. The N.C. Department of Transportation is also kicking in $1 million, Kozlosky said. 

The city has agreed to take over maintenance and ownership of the street. 

Kozlosky said officials have developed a plan to divert traffic onto adjacent streets during construction.

"This is certainly going to have an impact on traffic," he said.

Yes, folks, the city agreed to take ownership and maintenance of N. 3rd from the state ...to put decorative lights on it. I'm not sure why the the city took control now, although I believe the state offered the city $1M to take control of it. Unfortunately, I can't find a citation for that anywhere right now.