Monday night will bring a tough choice of meetings and events for concerned Vance County residents.
Thursday night’s meeting of the Vance County Coalition Against Violence demonstrated the dilemma for people committed to improving the place we live:
* Vance County NAACP President James Green and coalition Chairwoman Elnora O’Hara were urging people to show up at Henderson Middle School’s library at 6:30 p.m. Monday for a meeting with representatives of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The session will lay out what Vance County must do to launch a club chapter, which the coalition sees as a way to reduce crime by giving kids something to do after school.
* The Rev. Brenda Peace of Greater Little Zion United Holy Church in Flint Hill and Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce President Bill Edwards were promoting an anti-violence prayer vigil set for 6 to 7 p.m. Monday at South Henderson Pentecostal Holiness Church. The vigil is a prelude to the coalition’s Faith Summit on April 23.
* Coalition members were spending nearly half an hour discussing the overcrowding at Vance County’s public middle schools and the need to support the Board of Education’s request for money to build a third middle school, among other projects. School board member Margaret Ellis told her fellow coalition members that they need to show their feelings to the county commissioners. Those commissioners are meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the old courthouse on Young Street; the school board is meeting at 7 p.m. at the school system headquarters on Graham Avenue.
Just to complicate matters, Schools Superintendent Norm Shearin is due to discuss “facilities needs timeline development” during his report to the school board. That presentation is likely to come between 7:30 and 8 p.m. Meanwhile, County Manager Jerry Ayscue’s report to the Board of Commissioners is scheduled to include a request for Qualified Zone Academy Bond money — essentially a no-interest federal loan disbursed through the state — as one way to reduce the local funds necessary to meet the schools’ facilities needs. Ayscue’s report could come between 8 and 8:30 p.m.
If you’re not willing to drive back and forth across town, hoping to get lucky with the issues you care about, you might want to base your attendance Monday night on the other agenda items.
For the commissioners:
* Bids should be awarded for rehabilitation projects on Franklin Road and Julia Avenue and for a scattered-site project.
* Public hearings are scheduled on a Justice Assistance Grant, sought by Sheriff R. Thomas Breedlove; on a grant for a trial of individual accounts for new home buyers, proposed by Team Vance; on Rural Operating Assistance Program; and on the county’s ambulance franchise ordinance.
* Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Government Executive Director Neil Mallory and Rocky Lane are due to appear on behalf of the proposed multicounty economic hub. Specifically, they will discuss the action plan for the creation of the hub and will address the need for a letter of intent from the county.
* Emergency Operations Director Brian Short is set to talk about a plan for the continuation of vital operations in case of disaster and about the National Incident Management System.
On the agenda for the school board, in addition to such regular monthly items as the school attendance awards and the committee reports:
* Dwain Coleman from the Granville County NAACP has signed up to address the board.
* Leadership Vance participants are supposed to attend the meeting and be recognized.
* The board will be asked to approve the school system’s annual sale of surplus items April 30.
* Shearin will talk about funds to give at-risk children extra help in school.