Council members take oaths at Elizabethtown meeting

ELIZABETHTOWN — The Elizabethtown Town Council opened its regular monthly meeting on Monday with the swearing in of newly elected council members Rich Glenn, Paula Greene, Herman Lewis and Rufus Lloyd for four-year terms of office.

Niki Dennis, clerk of Superior Court in Bladen County, administered the formal oaths.

Upon the completion of the swearing in, Mayor Sylvia Campbell conducted an organizational meeting of the Town Council, and Lloyd was again elected to serve as mayor pro tem, according to Town Manager Dane Rideout.

“Other business included newly appointed Fire Chief Holis Freeman being officially sworn in, the reading of a proclamation honoring public services Street Supervisor Keith Smith for 40 years of service to the town and the naming of a street in his honor,” Rideout said in emailed highlights from the meeting, “and a resolution celebrating the life of (Retired) U.S. Air Force Col. Daniel Alexander McFadgen.”

Also, official administrative business heard from Rideout before authorizing him to conduct a preliminary engineering report for the Live, Work, Play campus development in the Elizabethtown Industrial Park coupled with a town letter of commitment for a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant submission to tackle roads, water and sewer infrastructure for the project.

The Live, Work, Play campus plan of housing for veterans and wounded warriors is expected to be a means of expanding the tax base.

The EDA is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that provides grants and technical assistance to economically distressed communities in order to generate new employment.

The Town Council shifted its next council meeting to Jan. 10, Rideout said, and will conduct business via Zoom due to council members scheduled to be out of town.

Rideout said Feb. 15 was selected as the date for the annual Town Council budget retreat. An extension was approved for the ongoing town audit, and the council approved using Powell Bill funds to correct tripping hazards on town sidewalks in the downtown area.