Mayor Clem Seifert: Let’s call this meeting of the council to order. Ms. Evans, please lead us in the invocation.
Monday’s open line
It’s a big day. The last Speak Up Henderson forum before the municipal elections is at 6 p.m. The penultimate City Council meeting before the elections is at 7:30 p.m. And all of the right-thinking UNC fans will have a blast at work all day mocking the State fans, whose only hope at being better than Carolina was in football, and now it looks as if that dream is as dead as T.A. McLendon’s NFL aspirations. Feel free to discuss.
Legislative report: Teacher bill could be vetoed
This is the latest in an occasional series of articles contributed by state Sen. Doug Berger about legislative issues of concern to Vance County. There remain 31 bills Gov. Mike Easley has yet to sign into legislation.
Pick of the day: A more entertaining forum
The City Council candidates will have another chance to tell Hendersonians about their hopes and dreams today at a forum arranged by Ward 1 at-large candidate Sara Coffey, who has said this event will be her only effort to campaign for the council seat she’s trying to take from Bernard Alston. The fun part of the forum, in addition to the possibility that the questions will make the candidates squirm, is that there will be gospel music in addition to …
Weekend open line
There’s no need to fear — your open line is here. We’ll post the mixed unemployment news later (had to deal with movers Friday and today), but there should be plenty to talk about. After all, Monday night is City Council meeting and Speak Up Henderson forum night!
Friday’s open line
Dr. Dennis, your prayers are answered — well, almost. Herewith we present a fresh open line. But it appears that Thursday’s open line was somehow lost in the wind as Rita came blowing by on her way to Texas. If we can ask the Rev. Hester to say a little something (easily diagrammed, of course), we can put Thursday to rest and move on to a whole new day of Henderson craziness.
Wednesday’s open line
Below, Henderson City Manager Eric Williams explains the reasons that council member Elissa Yount was kept in the dark Friday about a regional water meeting. What he doesn’t explain is how it could happen again so soon. We hear there’s a water meeting today, and again some council members weren’t notified. Here’s our notification: The floor is open to everyone.
Williams explains semisecret water meeting
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.”
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 …