In light of the discussion here about proper notification of city meetings, we offer verbatim City Manager Eric Williams’ response to City Council member Elissa Yount, who was fuming after learning too late about a regional water meeting last week. Yount asked Williams: “Please tell me why you did not notify Council Members of the ‘tentative’ meeting.”
Month: September 2005
Pick of the day: Weed and Seed wrapup
At 10:30 a.m. at the Aycock Recreation Complex, the Vance Organization to Implement Community Excellence has its last regular meeting before its self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline to complete the Weed and Seed application for Henderson and Vance County. VOICE is due to discuss the first two Weed and Seed public forums, as well as a forum scheduled for Tuesday at Eaton-Johnson Middle School at 6:30 p.m. The group also must make appointments to the formal Weed and Seed steering committee.
Lehman Street celebrates community
Five generations of the Terry family, including the leaders of Ministers Outreach Tabernacle, attend the Lehman Street Community Day on Saturday. The LeSIA (Lehman Street in Action) Community Watch and Ministers Outreach Tabernacle held their ninth annual Community Day on Saturday, when Lehman Street was closed in front of the church from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tuesday’s open line
The municipal elections are three weeks from today. Can you feel the excitement? Can you feel the embarrassing void left by our failure to submit questions to the candidates yet? Well, we intend to send the questions out tonight, so today is your last chance to submit the questions you want the candidates to answer. E-mail them with the link to the right, or post them below. Otherwise, the floor is yours.
Milestones: Hey, clean this!
Well, folks, you have to admit that the Clean Up Henderson Committee has done some wonderful things with the city. Dilapidated houses are coming down, junked and abandoned vehicles are being towed to that Great Junkyard Outside the ETJ, and weeded lots are being cleared. The cleanup committee also has helped clean up the railroad right of way.
Monday’s open line
We don’t usually push the discussion in any particular direction — well, at least not successfully. But for selfish reasons (WIZS doesn’t carry as far as Marietta, Ga, unfortunately), we’d like to start with something special today: What did y’all think about Sunday’s forum for Henderson City Council candidates? More than opinions on who did well or who won, we’d like to hear what statements made a strong impression, good or bad. What were the most important things you heard? …
Weekend open line
We apologize for being a bit late posting the open forum today, but we’ve been mulling over what we’ve learned this week. First, Henderson doesn’t have blue laws, but heaven forbid commerce should go on within shouting distance of a church on Sunday — even if the church isn’t concerned. We have a good enough Fire Department that we trust it to extiguish blazes with or without operational hydrants. Speaking of water, we learned that neither Congress as a whole …
Opinion: Management must publicize meetings
Here’s a question for you: Forgetting the state’s open-meetings law and focusing instead on what’s moral and ethical, what is a local government’s responsibility to publicize its meetings?
Pick of the day: Blast from the past
One of the glories of Henderson’s past rediscovered, or at least re-emphasized, in the past few years is the Corbitt company, which made some of the nation’s best trucks in an area that is now western Henderson where Corbitt Road runs into Parham Street. A monument erected months ago is officially dedicated today at 10 a.m. The monument sits by the old railroad bed behind Snackers off Parham Street. The monument is solid, simple and effective, like the trucks once …
Friday’s open line
Sorry, no time for anything clever this morning, although I’m still a bit disappointed that no one else plotted controlled chaos with potassium- or sodium-based explosives in their young and foolish days (kids, don’t try this at home or at school or anywhere else). By the way, how was Alive After Five? If you’re out there, Whit Sutton, how is Ophelia treating you? Anyway, the floor belongs to all y’all.
Committee wants city to hire hydrant guy
“Hydrants are nothing to play with. They shouldn’t be there if they are not going to work.” “It doesn’t matter if you have a $500,000 firetruck; it is of no use if the hydrant is dry.” Those and other comments were made at the meeting of the Henderson City Council’s Public Works Committee on Thursday at the Municipal Building.
City needs more data on street maintenance, gas
Henderson’s contract with the Department of Transportation for the maintenance of state roads within the city limits, the procedure for the purchase of gas and diesel fuel, and the future of garbage collection came under scrutiny at the meeting of the City Council’s Public Works Committee on Thursday.
Thursday’s open line
The boys should be back from Washington, in time to talk about fire hydrants, gasoline and road maintenance at a 10 a.m. meeting of Ranger Wilkerson’s Public Works Committee. And they’ll be around for the year’s final Alive After Five, featuring the Breakfsat Club, at 5:30 p.m. outside the likely future city hall, the Operations & Service Center on Beckford Drive. We await word on whether the Washington lobbying trip led by Mayor Clem Seifert had any luck with the …
Council waits to make decision on Municipal Building
During Monday night’s Henderson City Council meeting, council members debated not only whether to continue the city’s relationship with Energy Systems Group, but also whether to sell the Municipal Building.
Wednesday’s open line
So there’s nothing wrong with Henderson’s drinking water that a little rain, a little potassium and a little time won’t fix. Aside from regretting the wasted negotiating opportunity (“Gee, general, we’d be happy to take 20 million gallons a day of this stinky, foul-tasting water for, say, $1 million, but $3.455 million? Do algae cost extra?”), we’re fascinated by the use of a potassium compound in a water plant. Back in high school chemistry, the mix of water and potassium …
Business denied Sunday use of city property
At Monday night’s Henderson City Council meeting, downtown businessman Doug Marshall of Woodcrafts and Coin Supplies requested permission to use a nearby city parking lot at the corner of Garnett and Orange streets for an auction Sunday, Oct. 2, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Better-tasting water on the way, city says
After Henderson resident Sylvia Allyn addressed the City Council on Monday night regarding the water supply, which smells to her like “Ajax, Comet cleanser and Lysol,” the council soon heard a report on the problems with the water from the Kerr Lake Regional Water System.
Tuesday’s open line
It’s time to wish our city negotiating team the best of luck as the group heads to Washington to seek relief from the Army Corps of Engineers’ $3.455 million request (demand?) for a water storage contract at Kerr Lake. We don’t have much hope, but stranger things have happened. Meanwhile, the floor is open.
School board rejects higher parking fee
The Vance County Board of Education met on Monday night at the Administrative Services Center on Graham Avenue.
City fire hydrants fall into disrepair
A potential safety issue that came to light during Monday night’s City Council meeting is the number of fire hydrants in need of repair in Henderson.