I apologize to all those avid readers of this column that it is one week late. I could blame it on being tied up with city manager interviews, or lengthy budget meetings. I could even say I was busy hiking the Appalachian Trail or I was too occupied trying to find and reread, as suggested by former Mayor Slaughter, my ‘How to be a government official’ booklet. The truth is, I just didn’t have much to say, and far be it from me to waste your time.

Just a few housekeeping issues before getting to the meat of my column. As we wrapped up the city’s budgetary process, I and I believe City Council were left with a sour taste in our mouths. It seemed that although we were committed from the start to not laying off one single person from city staff in these uncertain times, that city employees did not register appreciation for that commitment, which should be the primary concern of any employee in this day and time. There seemed to be a desire to want to paint us as being harsh or insensitive, and a poor attitude among the management staff that they were not getting raises. Now I agree that my off-the-cuff remark to a reporter after a tense and lengthy budget meeting that “there are 10 people waiting in line for every city job” did not strike the right tone, as true as it may be. But it was said not to undermine any employee’s value or expertise, but rather to point out that the economy has changed and the way the city runs itself must change with it. Over the years, the city has accumulated some salaries and benefits, that are, frankly, no longer competitive. Our job as elected officials is not to keep certain salaries and benefits high just because we want to score points with city employees, or because that’s the way its always been, or because many of these employees may truly deserve higher pay, it is to be good stewards of the city’s finances and secure the future financial stability of the city as economic conditions become increasingly uncertain. And in the final analysis, I believe this budget achieved those goals. We have restored our fund balance to the recommended level, just one year after receiving a warning letter from the NC Government Commission that our fund balance was getting dangerously low, we have set aside a generous amount for repaving long neglected streets, we have set aside money to explore building a recreation center, we have devoted more money to beautification efforts, and we funded the Chamber of Commerce and Scotland County Economic Development Corporation to try to help bring more jobs, all items that the citizens consistently list as high priorities. And we did it without laying off a single employee, cutting benefits or raising taxes. Now are we such bad people?

What I really wanted to devote this column to, before I got sidetracked with the last paragraph, is the upcoming 21st Century Community meeting. Last year, Scotland County was designated by the state as a 21st Century Community. What this means, basically, is that Scotland County is having trouble adjusting to the new century so the state is throwing some resources our way to help us out with economic and community development. The first meeting is sometime in July and is supposed to be a gathering of community leaders and stakeholders to talk about the community both present and future. What I wanted to say is that I hope this will be a starting point for developing a meaningful community-wide vision for the future of Scotland County and Laurinburg. The oft-quoted biblical saying “Without a vision, the people shall perish,” is usually trotted out here. It not only sounds good, but being from the bible, must be true. We, as a community, including the City Council, County Commisioners, School Board, Chamber, LDRC, TDA, LMA, and anyone else who cares about the future of this community, need to sit down and hash out a vision for the future and concrete plans for achieving it. Many ideas are tossed around, such as retirement community, horse country, college town, chicken farm country, interstate growth, downtown revitalization, etc. etc. All of these ideas have merit but all take “buy-in” from everyone and every entity and a clearly defined plan of what everyone’s role is in bringing these things about. I believe that it is only with a community-wide vision, whatever that is, agreed upon by all the stakeholders, that we will make meaningful strides towards the growth that we would all like to see. And so, I hope anyone reading this who believes in community ‘visioning’(and, by the way, it works) will become part of the process, because everyone is needed.