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Applause and Boos

Applause to the more than 70 residents who packed Thursday’s Elkins City Council meeting, many in opposition to the proposed 1 percent sales tax on city businesses. Local business leaders, including Mark Doak and Jay Wallace, spoke during the meeting and asked council to table the ordinance until officials determine how the tax revenue will be spent. Councilman Robert Chenoweth made a motion to table the ordinance but council voted that down, instead passing the ordinance on its second of three required readings. Although the majority of council appears to be ignoring the voices of the community, two more officials showed Thursday they were listening to the town’s business community. Councilman Christopher Lowther added his “no” vote to those of Chenoweth and Fifth Ward’s Linda Vest Thursday when the ordinance was read; Lowther was absent from the Nov. 2 meeting when the first reading took place. Also Thursday, Mayor Van Broughton showed he was paying attention to the town’s residents, speaking up before the vote on Chenoweth’s motion to table the ordinance. “And I will go on record. I don’t have a vote, but if council wants to table this, that’s fine with me,” Broughton said. We appreciate Lowther and Broughton’s willingness to speak up and go against the grain of what some on council are determined to do. We also are encouraged by the amount of local residents who came out Thursday to take part in local government. As Rhett Dusenbury, representative for Congressman Alex Mooney, R-2nd District, said while looking at the audience Thursday night, “What a wonderful example of an exercise of our constitutional rights.” The third and final reading of the ordinance will be at the next council meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 7.

Applause to the community for showing its support of veterans during a number of events over the past week. Saturday featured a Veterans Day ceremony at the All Veterans Memorial in Elkins, a special parade through downtown Elkins and the 98th annual American Legion Post 29 Veterans Day Dinner. Veterans were honored Tuesday during a reception honoring those men and women featured during The Inter-Mountain’s inaugural Unsung Heroes series, held at the Randolph County Senior Center. All the events were well-attended, as local residents offered their thanks for the sacrifices our veterans made for our country.

Boo to the current practice, by Elkins City Council, the Elkins Planning Commission and Elkins Main Street, of having “public forums” where no one is allowed to speak. Instead, residents are handed color-coded stickers and asked to attach them to poster boards, indicating what “officially approved” options they prefer. This is a way to “gauge public support for particular projects,” as one local official put it this week, but it’s also a way to get credit for having a public event without allowing any individual or group to go on the record about what they believe should be done. Some residents attending these meetings have complained that they are infantilizing, that they make people feel like children as they shuffle around, putting colorful stickers on poster boards. If officials really want to have a “public forum,” they should actually give people a chance to talk on the record. What are the officials afraid will happen if people are allowed to speak their mind?

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