Notes From Southside Town Hall
Last night I attended the first Town Hall meeting held by Mayor Dwight C. Jones at the Southside Community Center located in the Southside Plaza. It was standing room only as over 200 crowded the meeting room. The room was flanked by tables of what appeared to be every city department each with a representative ready to answer questions.
The meeting started with a representative from Census 2010 speaking on the importance of participation so that the city can receive federal money. The Mayor then gave a speech short on specifics, that focused on bringing people together and working with each other. He was interrupted frequently by applause and set a tone that was overwhelmingly positive. Forest Hill Lake restoration was one example mentioned of successes in the city. I also was interested when he stated that the city will be opening a Health Center at George Wythe High School. No details on what defines a “Health Center” just that George Wythe would have one.
He then turned the floor over to Chief of Police Norwood. Chief Norwood is a very strong speaker and had the group in the palm of his hand. His focus was not on statistics but on all citizens working with police and police being part of the community to make the city stronger and reduce crime. We also heard very briefly from Chief Robert A. Creecy who also focused on the theme of community and working together.
The floor was then turned over to the citizens for questions. More often than not the Mayor would point to one of the tables around the room and ask the citizen speak to a specific department head that could best answer the question. When Mayor Jones knew the answer he answered and with honesty. One example was a citizen who wanted to know if the city was going to hire more people to take care of services such as public works. The Mayor stated that due to budget issues there will probably be a decrease in employees.The majority of comments were directed at the conditions of the streets and there is a long list of projects in the works including but not limited to Belt, Janhke, and E. 33rd.
One gentleman mentioned the new stormwater utility fee stating that he was confused on what it did and felt it was unfair to add another fee to someone who already pays a property tax. These comments were met with the loudest applause during the question and answer period. The Mayor stated that he couldn’t properly explain it either and turned to another department head whose name I unfortunately didn’t catch. The unknown official (sorry about that) stated that due to new federal regulations to protect the Chesapeake Bay and other watersheds the fee was necessary as storm runoff was found to be a major contributor of pollution. The citizen who asked the question was not satisfied and asked if the city council had approved this measure. He was told that yes they had and that there had been several public meeting on the issue. The mayor was also quick to point out that the effort to setup the storm utility fee had begun before he took office. The man who first asked the question did not seem completely satisfied with answers received.
Overall I was impressed with the meeting and was pleased that the Mayor chose the Southside as the site for the first meeting.
At about 1:11 you will see my confused face. Yes the mustache is real as is the confusion.
George Wythe’s Health Center opened last year. Someone failed to inform the mayor. Someone also asked about the decommissioned CSX tracks and the mayor failed to mention Greenways or the “Rails and Trails” project councilman Doug Conner is working on.
Thanks for the info on the Health Center. I didn’t know that it was already in place. I noticed the lack of mention on “Rails to Trails” as well. I think the reason for not mentioning it is that it is still preliminary. That project seems a long way off. I was at that meeting and need to post my notes.