ELIZABETHTOWN — The West Bladen Chapter of the NAACP is hosting a forum Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. at the Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy.
The forum is being hosted by Corey Lyons, the recently established director of the local chapter. Lyons has requested the town of Elizabethtown council members to be in attendance.
“The meeting is mainly to establish a dialogue between the officials and the community,” he said. “We want that conversation.”
Lyons said he feels there has been a breakdown of communication, and consequently in the community, and he wants to alleviate it.
“We like answers straight from the horse’s mouth,” he said, stressing that this is about the future of the city and their neighborhood. “There’s a lot going on on Broad Street.”
Lyons has hopes to open the dialogue about the MLK Drive corridor, money and funding, and communication in general.
Lyons said he hasn’t asked the community members why they are not attending the Town Council meetings, but said that what he thought was that some of the community felt that the “board had already made up their minds before the meeting.”
“I think some don’t go because of past things,” he said. “They feel that they are going to do what they are going to do.”
Lyons said that he has talked to board member Howell Clark about what is going on, and that he believes that Clark may be planning to attend.
“It’s about both sides and the community,” Lyons said.
Town board member Ricky Leinwand said that he was thinking about going, but that there were concerns about having more than three there constituting a quorum. Leinwand said that the particulars of that line of thought had not been discussed with the town attorney, Goldston Womble, but that it was going to be addressed.
Elected boards, as a general practice to meet state law, will issue a public notice when they believe there is the likely presence of a quorum at any gathering. This allows full boards to attend various functions, even if not there to conduct business.
The board expressed concern about the appearance of a quorum at the last town meeting. Who or how many may go was not settled.
“I know that Lyons has come to the town before, and I like the guy, and he’s been coming to our meetings,” Leinwand said. “It’s all been done in a nice manner, and right now I am planning on going.”
Board member Rufus Lloyd said that he was not sure who was going to go to the meeting, but that it would be determined in the next few days.
“We haven’t decided,” said Lloyd. “Everybody on the full board can’t go.”